As a forestry student doing an internship, Anja Grimm ends up in that remote area in the Upper Palatinate Forest, where she went on vacation with her parents as an eight-year-old girl and her father disappeared without a trace. Her job is to take soil samples to create a soil map. At one point in the forest floor she comes across abnormal irregularities. Not long after their arrival, a brutal murder occurs. Anja soon arouses suspicion and hostility not only among the villagers with her suspicion that the perpetrator knows something about her father's fate and with her questions about the atypical soil composition in the forest clearing. Even the police react extremely reservedly to their investigations. And when it turns out that the young woman can read the signs of the forest like an open book, forces mobilize in the village who are apparently ready for anything because there is a dark secret that needs to be kept.
Kreuzeder was once a successful commissioner, but now he rarely solves a case. After more than 20 years in the service, he just wants to retire as quickly as possible and leave everyday life in the homicide squad in Lower Bavaria behind. Kreuzeder is of the opinion that humanity is coming to an end anyway, so he prefers to get drunk in the tavern and flirt with the waitress Gerda Bichler there instead of going about his work.
Death (in Bavarian: Boandlkramer) is supposed to get little Maxl, but he falls in love with Maxl's mother. Confused by the previously unknown feelings, he confides in the devil. The incarnate persuades him to start a business where the Boandlkramer gets the chance to compete for Gefi as a mortal. Encouraged by the advice of the recently deceased womanizer Max Gumberger, the Boandl stumbles through earthly life in search of eternal love.