After many years, Detective Chief Inspector Steffen Gellhagen returns to his home town to solve the case of a missing schoolgirl. The former teacher Kortmann, who has a criminal record for rape resulting in death, very quickly becomes the investigator's target. However, the eloquent Kortmann is uncooperative and cynically dismissive during interrogation. Gellhagen is convinced that the man knows more than he is admitting. As the pressure from the media and the outraged citizens grows, the police officer has to decide how far he wants to go to get Kortmann to talk.