A police check on a country lane outside Schleswig. One car avoids the check and runs over a police officer. His colleague shoots at the car, but it manages to escape. When Detective Inspector Jana Winter finds the vehicle, the passenger is missing and the driver has been beaten to death. The only clue regarding the dead man's identity leads Jana to her Danish colleague Malte in Copenhagen.
The victim is Karsten Rogge, originally from Schleswig and married to Danish shipping company owner Pernille Rogge. Pernille reveals that her husband was a manic depressive and that she had to force him out of his position within the company, causing a marital crisis. The only contact Karsten still had in Schleswig was with his friends from university, Axel and Anna Gerstätter. Could the passenger have been Anna?
In the meantime, Jana's colleagues Hamm and Brauner, investigating back in Schleswig, have found out that Anna's husband Axel was at the scene of the crime. Did he kill his friend Karsten because he had an affair with his wife?
The case takes an unexpected turn when Jana discovers that the person next to Karsten in the car wasn't Anna, but her 15-year-old daughter Caro, with whom manic Karsten apparently wanted to start a new life. Jana finds Caro in a hide-out together with Jonas, the son of Karsten and Pernille. Caro claims that after Karsten ran over the policeman, she'd wanted to return home, and that her father got angry and probably killed Karsten in a fight. Upset, Caro fled from her aggressive father, asking Jonas for help and hiding with him in order to refocus.
Axel desperately denies any accusations, but the evidence is overwhelming. However, ultimately Jana and her Danish colleague Malte uncover a family tragedy behind Karsten Rogge's murder.
