Almost all of Alt-Bützenich is deserted and boarded up. At night a security service checks on everything. It was decided that the houses and the church would have to give way to open-cast mining. Then the climate change brings new hope: the old village can stay.
But the once close-knit village community has long since disappeared with the move to Neu-Bützenich. As Dr. When Christian Franzen, the local doctor, is informed that his empty house has been broken into, he immediately sets off - but never returns home. His wife Betje turns to the police, who find her husband - shot dead in the old village. Even though everyone here was a patient of the doctor, he was still not particularly popular. During their investigation, detectives Max Ballauf and Freddy Schenk uncover a torn community. Time cannot simply be turned back here in the lignite mining area.
