When Holger Mischewski is found dead in his own bar – a well-known establishment in the old town of Düsseldorf called Elephant – his lifeless hand is clutching a playing card. None of the staff or regular customers can suggest why anyone would have wanted "Mische" out of the way. He was a very popular character, and though it is rumored that he had a shady past, nobody believes he is mixed up in anything illegal nowadays. As soon as Chief Inspector Martin Stolberg starts questioning the witnesses he comes across an old colleague, Chief Supt Büttner, who was playing cards in the Elephant on the night of the murder together with a doctor, Uwe Falk and Heinrich Overhoff, an accountant. Strangely enough, Büttner doesn't prove very co-operative... but finally Stolberg discovers what it is that Büttner wants to keep quiet: he is suffering from a brain tumor which will soon prove fatal. And it emerges that he just recently broke up with his girlfriend, a waitress in the Elephant called Carolin Jakobs, for no apparent reason. Then forensic tests establish that Mische was shot with Büttner’s service revolver, so it looks as though Büttner killed the landlord from jealousy. But even when Büttner turns co-operative and submits a confession, Stolberg refuses to believe that he actually committed the crime. Meanwhile the name "Broich" is another mystery. Apparently the victim scrawled it on the playing card as he was dying, but the name doesn't ring a bell with any of the customers in the bar. Nor does it seem to be connected with the victim - at least at first. Stolberg, still unconvinced by Büttner’s motive for murder, is keeping an open mind about the case and continuing his investigation. And when he questions Büttner again, his alibi suddenly seems shaky. Büttner’s health is now fading fast, and when he suffers a collapse he insists that they call Dr. Falk, the only member of the medical profession Büttner trusts and accepts treatment from. Meanwhile, Florian Glade manages to establish the connection between the victim and the mysterious Broich; apparently Mischewski trained as a medical orderly in the same hospital as Richard Broich. And by a curious coincidence, Broich died from the same kind of brain tumor that Büttner is now suffering from. It is at this point that the case takes an unexpected turn for Stolberg...
