Crime scene: Duisburg. Author Irene Scharenberg reads from her tenth crime novel "Aus dem Nichts".

"You're quite a clever one. You tickle everything out of me." Bernhard Barnowski takes what the witness says as encouraging praise. He has to prove himself and is due to take over from Detective Chief Inspector Pielkötter at Duisburg police headquarters in the foreseeable future. And he wants to give his all in her new case, the murder of a young policewoman from Moers. But then his colleague is attacked. Although she manages to escape the perpetrator, Pielkötter's team is now considered biased. They negotiate a reprieve, after which the Düsseldorf CID is to investigate. With time running out, they remain on the murderer's trail, unaware of the perfidious game he has devised for them.