In London at the turn of the century, underworld kingpin Mack the Knife marries Polly Peachum without the knowledge of her father, the equally enterprising 'king of the beggars'.

Mike Hilton served eight years in prison for being innocent. When he is released from prison early, he wants revenge on the men who were responsible. But the ex-commissioner in charge at the time, Jack Bellamy, has given in to drunkenness. And Mike's lawyer Cunningham continues to make crooked deals. He holds the key to solving the case. When Bellamy picks himself up again, he and Hilton are able to bring Cunningham and the gangster Whity to justice.

In 1955, Michael Vierkant, a Jew who had emigrated during the Nazi era, returns from abroad to the Federal Republic of Germany to obtain the conviction of Korn, the former informer responsible for the murder of his sister. Korn is back in office; Michael's efforts remain unsuccessful. There is a direct confrontation between the two, and Michael shoots Korn in self-defense. He flees and is hidden by the young, reclusive artist Marie Jäger, but is then caught by the police and charged with premeditated murder. The case is taken out of the hands of the criminal investigation department by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which constructs an act of political revenge on behalf of the communists. Michael manages to escape from prison. Marie and her friends organize a press conference at which Michael reveals the connections. The trial is postponed.

Hatifa is tired of her difficult fate and escapes from the place of her enslavement, a quarry in the desert. There she wanders around in freedom, but ultimately helpless, without water or food. Shortly before dying of thirst, she is saved by the sage Simsal, who is traveling with a caravan of the merchant Ganem. Hatifa quickly makes many friends, including the young servant Hodja. Only to him she confides her secret. The girl had to keep the fact that she was a slave to herself. After all, anyone who helps escaped slaves is mercilessly threatened with the death penalty. Out of consideration for the caravan, they both flee, but are soon picked up by Ganem. When he realizes that he can make a lot of money with Hatifa, he sells her again to a quarry.

At the end of the 1950s, the production of optics in the German Democratic Republic has reached top quality and instigates interest in the West. When national demand rises strongly and at the same time the export to South America heavily decreases, the Volkspolizei - the GDR police force - starts to look into the case. Two seemingly unrelated cases are the starting point for the investigation by second lieutenant Schellenberg of the department for optics racketeering: An old woman who was arrested in the Berlin city railway for trying to smuggle a pair of binoculars to West Berlin, and a dead person in an area of allotments who was involved in obscure dealings with optical devices.

Paris, 1888. With the help of forensic medicine, a sensational criminal case is uncovered. The chief of the Paris Sûreté, Inspector Goron, with the help of Lyon University Professor Lacassagne, is able to solve a capital crime that seemed unsolvable according to the methods of forensic science at the time. By analyzing the bone structure, Lacassagne identifies an unknown dead man as the Parisian civil servant Alphonse Gouffé, who disappeared months ago, and is also able to prove that he was murdered. The murder suspects include Gabrielle Bompard and her lover Michele Eyraudt.