What inspector Borowski hears and sees at the crime scene this time also exceeds his imagination: the pregnant Stefanie Brückner had her baby cut out of her body shortly before she was born. The mother is in mortal danger, there is no trace of the child. Frieda Jung surprises Borowski with the assumption that it is very likely a woman who cannot have children of her own, socially isolated and unmarried. A clever analysis, but Frieda Jung is wrong about one important detail.
Commissioner Borowski is on his way home from a fishing holiday when he is called for help at an unusual point: in the middle of the sea, on the way from Sweden to Germany, the captain of the ferry has disappeared without a trace. Borowski had seen him shortly before, when Captain Venske had been arguing with his First Officer Björndahl at the bar. Borowski has all the passengers on the ferry screened and reconstructs the captain's last hours. Even the first trace is strange: someone has opened the pilot door - the signal for an emergency. Did Captain Venske leave voluntarily, was it suicide, accident or murder?