September 2021: The International Olympic Committee meets in Shanghai to award the 2032 Summer Games. Shortly before the decisive vote, Mozambican IOC official Charles Murandi is found murdered in his hotel room. Security camera footage shows that journalist Thomas Gärtner was the last person in the victim’s room and was carrying unknown documents when he left; however, when questioned, he claims to have no recollection of this. This is an explosive case for the young consular official Lena Hechfellner: she knows about Gärtner’s acquaintance with Murandi and believes she knows what is in the documents, but no one is allowed to find out. As a result, everyone involved becomes a pawn in a game whose rules they don’t know. The German Chancellor fears the worst, a second journalist senses his big chance, and Lena herself is suddenly targeted by the Chinese authorities. Only gradually does it become clear that the key to solving the case lies deep in the past: in a time when a contract worker in the GDR was cheated out of his future.