Johann hardly recognizes his friend Toni: the mayor has been very quiet, almost introverted, since his wife died. Johann would like to help him, but Toni won't let anyone or anything get close to him. Instead, he tries to smother his grief in tranquilizers. And this has disastrous consequences: When Toni briefly closes his eyes from overtiredness on the drive home from Johann, he drives off the road and crashes into a tree. For a brief moment, Toni believes he has also seen a shadow. But when he finds no one around his car, he believes it is a hallucination.