A body is found in a canal on the Danish border. The woman was murdered in the same way as three before her. Special investigator Gloria Acheampong is sent to the province to take on the case.
Self-important author Leon joins his best friend on a summer holiday near the Baltic Sea to complete his novel. When they arrive, they find their house is already occupied by a carefree woman who challenges Leon to open up. Meanwhile, forest wildfires rage around them and impending disaster looms.
On March 25, 1996, the publicist Jan Philipp Reemtsma is kidnapped. His son Johann and his wife Ann Kathrin witness how their home is transformed overnight into a police control center. Two police officers, the family’s lawyer and a close friend form a community of fate, united by their common goal of bringing Johann’s father home as quickly and unharmed as possible.
Five houses, one bus stop, cows and nothing but fields. 24-year-old Christin lives on the farm of her long-term boyfriend Jan. The exciting post-reunification years that defined her childhood are long gone. Her relationship is loveless. She keeps the cherry liqueur close at hand. In the shimmering heat of summer, time seems to stand still – until 46-year-old wind energy engineer, Klaus, arrives.
Undine is a historian and tour guide at the Berlin City Museum specializing in urban development, while Christoph is an industrial diver. Linked by a love of the water, the two form an intense bond, which can only do so much to help Undine overcome the considerable baggage of her former affair.