Stefanie Berghoff from Buchingen had been missing for 17 hours when the Lauburg police station began their search. Detective Chief Inspector Barbara Kramer and her colleague Thomas Riedle coordinated the search along the young woman's jogging route. The longer they searched, the more important it became to secure evidence, find witnesses, and prevent the many volunteers around Berghoff's husband and father from trampling on evidence. When the young woman's body was finally found in the forest, she had already been dead for 72 hours, killed by violence, the murder weapon unknown. Forensic medicine and forensic science began their work. The evidence was thin, and the investigative team led by Barbara and Thomas was expanded to a special task force.

The strikingly colored male hair found in the Schora case leads investigators to a suspect. The case is solved, and there is great relief – even if no breakthrough has yet been achieved in the Berghoff case. At least the missing running shoe and splinters from the victim's cell phone are finally found. Because traces of his husband's DNA are found on them, Tobias Berghoff must spend an unpleasant time in the detention cell before he can be ruled out as the perpetrator. Finally, a search of European databases yields a result: four years earlier, a young woman was killed in Austria in a similar case. The murder remains unsolved. The theory that the perpetrator could be a truck driver is growing stronger. Barbara and Thomas agree to collaborate with their Austrian colleagues. Now 50,000 data records from Austrian toll stations must be examined.