A contract killing in the red light district shakes the Hamburg neighborhood. During the investigation, Thorsten Falke meets his old acquaintance Lübke and is confronted with his own St. Pauli past and personal memories of his time as a young bouncer. In the face of prostitution and modern human trafficking, Julia Grosz is alien to any nostalgic connection to the neighborhood. Together they hunt down the assassin and his backers before the smoldering war in the red-light milieu escalates. Falke's old friend and mentor Lübke, a local veteran, turns out to be more and more a tricky opponent..