A pot of half a million marks - donations for workers who want to prevent the closure of their factory by occupying the factory - disappears after a brutal robbery; and shortly afterwards one of them, the union official Broegger, is murdered.

The atmosphere in Duisburg is heated, speculation is spreading. Schimanski knows that the case must be solved as quickly as possible. But now, of all times, his friend and colleague Thanner has left him; he has gone to Bonn, to a branch of the BKA.