A woman is found hanged in her room in the exclusive Hotel Rheinpalais. Superficially everything points to suicide. The chief inspectors Ballauf and Schenk have doubts: For them it looks like a brutal execution. First testimonies point to a connection between the 60-year-old victim Kathrin Kampe (Eva Weißenborn) and the owner of the hotel Bettina Mai (Ulrike Krumbiegel). When the suspicions against Bettina Mai intensified and her arrest is imminent, she takes over Inspector Schenk and flees with him as a hostage...