Two-year-old Paulina is suddenly no longer in her crib, and everything points to an abduction. But the hijacker does not answer.

A kidnapping case starts a dangerous game of cat and mouse for Berlin detective Martin Brühl in the world of illegal car racing. 19-year-old Tim Jatzkowski doesn't come home. At first this is nothing to worry about. But then his father, luxury car dealer Heiner Jatzkowski, receives a ransom demand. Martin Brühl and his team encounter a shocked mother and a rather shirt-sleeved father who thinks the police should do their job and find Tim. The detective tries to convince Jatzkowski to pay the ransom. Among Jatzkowski's regular customers, whom he supplies with tuned luxury sports cars, there are plenty with contacts to the Berlin clans. He decides against paying the ransom.

Empathy is a two-edged sword, especially for Martin. Tormented by the past, haunted by the present, the chief inspector is a brilliant investigator and, together with his team, solves the most convoluted cases. From kidnapping to hostage situations, to murder. Unable to eat or sleep until a case is solved, they all take their toll.

When his partner Susanne Koch is not lying in bed next to him as usual in the morning, Inspector Martin Brühl knows immediately that something is wrong. What he doesn't know is that Susanne has witnessed a crime on her way home at night. She was seriously injured when an ATM was blown up and was quickly taken away by the perpetrators.