Little Marie Kerstner has disappeared after a daycare outing in the woods. Chief Inspector Oliver von Bodenstein and his colleague Pia Kirchhoff investigate and unexpectedly come across two bodies. First, senior public prosecutor Hardenbach is found dead, apparently shot with a load of buckshot from his own hunting rifle. Shortly afterwards, a dead young woman is discovered at the foot of a lookout tower. It turns out that the dead woman is Isabel Kerstner, the mother of the missing girl. Isabel had made many enemies in her short life and the suspects for her murder are queuing up. But what did the dead prosecutor have to do with Isabel and where is her daughter? Only gradually do von Bodenstein and Kirchhoff realize the true dimension of the case.