Hagen von Strelow is on a flight from South America to Frankfurt am Main. He is a wanted war criminal who is to be put on trial (belatedly) in Germany. Inspector Murot and his assistant Wächter are waiting for him there. Murot had been on his trail 30 years ago, but Hagen von Strelow managed to escape at the last moment. In 1944, von Strelow and Inspector Rother took part in a murder investigation in a small village. A British pilot who was in possession of explosive documents that were crucial to the war was murdered. During the course of the investigation, it turns out that the war-weary investigator Rother is doing everything he can to ensure that the documents do not fall into the hands of the Nazis, and is also protecting the Jew Else Weiß, who is in hiding in the village. With fatal consequences?