Swiss allotment gardener Livius is murdered in his garden on French soil. The case must therefore be investigated by both the Swiss and French police. This leads to friction between the two forces. To make matters worse, Hunkeler has to cut short his vacation.

Even in retirement, Hunkeler cannot give up investigating. In Basel, a theater director is murdered, and his body is found with its eyes missing.

Two dead with their earlobes slashed. Inspector Hunkeler believes that the brothel owner Garzoni is the culprit. However, his colleagues Madörin and Lüdi are researching the drug milieu. Then prosecutor Suter withdraws Commissioner Hunkeler from the case because of bias. Has Hunkeler grown old? The third film adaptation of a case with the Basel inspector Hunkeler based on the novel by Hansjörg Schneider.

In this interesting World War I drama, Bruno Ganz gives a compelling performance as Jakob, an obsessive inventor who lives in a Swiss village. He receives unconditional support from his friend Otti (Walo Luond), but that is about all; the other villagers do not tolerate Jakob's eccentricities very well, and regard him as a crackpot. He perserveres in spite of this obstacle and finally invents a viable carriage that does not run on wheels but on a tread. Unfortunately for Jakob, the military have already come up with the same invention: the tank. The discovery finally breaks him, and he is quickly shuttled off to an asylum.