Almost all of Alt-Bützenich is deserted and barricaded. At night, a security service checks that everything is in order. It was decided that the houses and the church would have to give way to opencast mining. Then climate change will bring new hope: the old village can stay. But the once sworn village community has long since lost itself with the move to Neu-Bützenich. as dr Christian Franzen, the local doctor, is informed that his vacant house has been broken into, he sets off immediately - but does not return home. His wife Betje goes 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 not particularly popular. During their investigations, detectives Max Ballauf and Freddy Schenk uncover a divided community. Time cannot simply be turned back here in the lignite mining area. While Schenk always drives to Cologne after work, Ballauf makes friends with the former innkeeper Karin Bongartz, who tells him a lot about the old village and the now radically changed life in the countryside near Cologne.
—ADR Das Erste