Hamburg, 1948.

In a routine operation, Chief Inspector Frank Stave is shot down. He survives, but transfers from the murder commission to the office combatting the black market.

There, Stave is confronted with an enigmatic case when Trummerfrau, women helping to clear rubble from Hamburg's bombed streets, discover works of art from the German Weimar period, and a unidentified corpse.

When, shortly afterwards, mysterious banknotes begin to pop up on the black market Stave soon discovers strange parallels between the two cases. With the introduction of a new currency, Stave thinks he is on the brink of a solution. But the truth is dangerous. And not just for him...