A teenage orphan fights against the Red Army at the end of WWII and in the aftermath is 'adopted' by a Commissar. Years later he is sent to London during the Cold war to work for the KGB, where he questions his life.
The body of a young Mexican woman is found in the Main Valley, south of Würzburg. Inspector Peter Haller and his colleague Birgit Sacher are involved in solving the crime. Haller is not yet forty and was born in Würzburg. He has a quiet love for his city, for its clarity and familiarity. He will never fully understand how people can become criminals in such a beautiful environment. This is the secret drive behind his investigations, in which he is not just concerned with solving the case, but with looking into the soul of the perpetrator.
Christine Wagner is raped by a burglar in her house while her husband Stefan is on a business trip. When she later wants to report the break-in and the sexual assault to the police, her descriptions are believed to be implausible. The officer in charge considers her representations to be exaggerated and made up and decides not to deal with this case any further. Christine is frustrated by this and suppresses what has happened.
Clara and her boyfriend break up their relationship in Paris. She stays a few days in the city, where he meets a man who offers her work. But, unexpectedly, love again knocking on her door.
In Russia’s unwelcoming north, garages stretch out into endlessness. Behind rusty doors everything can be found, except cars. They are the refuge of the Russian man, the vanishing point out of bleak daily life and a signal of hope for big dreams.
