After 16 years, Sabine travels back to her home village. The occasion is a class reunion. She wants to return to Vienna that very evening. She has only come anyway because things are still not settled between her and her childhood sweetheart Leonhard. The joy of their reunion is overshadowed by the disappearance of his daughter. The events awaken a sense of déjà vu in her. In addition, she learns of the suicide of her former best friend. She directs her suspicions towards her former teacher, the village's great patron, Dr. Körbler. "Körbler loves children", she writes on a note, which she anonymously passes to Leonard. The girl had tutored with Körbler before she disappeared. Sabine obviously has good reason to suspect the seemingly harmless old man.