Under mysterious circumstances, the restorer Lukas Albrecht drowns in the Canale dei Marani in Venice. While the easy-going Commissario Santo sees no criminal offense, the victim's widow resents the details. Anna, who is traveling from Vienna with her eleven-year-old son, doesn't believe it was an accident: her husband didn't have any alcohol in his blood, he knew the lagoon and could swim
At the beginning of 2000, the young commissioner Yvonne Weber moved from Frankfurt am Main to Eisenach. Together with the local colleague Frank Wolf, she is to review an unresolved murder case from the GDR era. The investigation team encounters inconsistencies in the file and it becomes clear that there is no interest in truth-clarifying the Eisenach department and the prosecutor's office in Gotha.
Lawyer Lea Jung has won a much-noticed process. Her client Nick Storm, accused of rape, was acquitted because Lena was able to prove the alleged victim Yvonne Schubert was not credible. After the trial, Nick begins courting Lea. She has reservations but is interested at the same time. Nick is a very attractive man. But Yvonne Schubert is also looking to be close to the lawyer. She desperately insists that she was right, accuses Lena of having ruined her life and urgently warns her not to make the same mistake she made: falling for Nick.
On his birthday, Tobias goes shopping to the city with his mother. While waiting in the car for her to remove money from an ATM, he disappears without a trace. His mother, distraught, desperately seeks him. When she returns home, a phone call confirms her fears: Tobias has been kidnapped. Meanwhile the guests begin to arrive to the party.