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.

Two Polish truck drivers are brutally murdered by an Arab hit squad at a scrap yard in Duisburg. At the same time, the exiled Pole Leczek, scrapyard owner and pimp, is apparently to be executed. But the attack fails. Schimanski and Thanner, who both witness the attack, can't believe their eyes.

When a policeman is killed, Schimanski's investigation gets personal.