Commissioner Borowski is on his way home from a fishing vacation 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? Also the conversation with Annemarie Venske, the wife of the captain in Kiel. Borowski doesn't help. He decides to take the ferry back to Sweden to interview the crew.
When he arrives in Gothenburg, his Swedish colleague, Commissioner Eveline Wallstöm, is already waiting for him. Borowski learns from her that Björndahl had reason to get the captain out of the way. However, another lead turns out to be far more interesting: when inspector Borowski and inspector Wallström examine the captain's locker, they come across Greta Karlsson - Venske's second wife with whom he lives in the archipelago and has a child. Borowski is almost intrigued by his first case of bigamy. But then the captain is found dead in the Baltic Sea. Since his wedding ring is missing, the wives are the target of the investigation. Borowski brings the two widows together at the husband's corpse. An approach for which he was sharply criticized by the psychologist Frieda Jung.
She is responsible for the psychological care of the widows and is therefore heavily involved in the investigations. When there are more and more indications that Greta Karlsson could have murdered her husband because of his high life insurance, Klaus Borowski and Frieda Jung set off together for Sweden to interrogate her. A journey that not only brings the background of the fact to light. But the two of them have another ferry ride ahead of them, and this time the murderer is also on board.