A mysterious phone call puts Kluftinger and his colleagues Maier and Hefele on the trail of a brutal series of murders. A serial killer who cuts out the hearts of his victims and drapes them macabrely at the crime scene is up to mischief in the Allgäu. There is hardly any time for Kluftinger's own worries, the chest pains that are making his life hell.

A violent crime shakes Inspector Kluftinger's idyllic hometown of Altusried. The murdered man worked as the manager of a nearby dairy and was hated because he cut the price of milk to the bone. This affects the farmers, with whom the detective plays in the brass band, who are worried about their livelihood. Kluftinger has to ask them unpleasant questions, which promptly poisons the atmosphere. His wife Erika is also upset because her husband cancels their vacation in Spain because of the murder case. And to make matters worse, his overzealous father, a retired village policeman, starts his own investigation. While the detective falls into an excavated grave in pursuit of a suspect, Kluftinger Senior's investigations lead to the arrest of the murder victim's illegally employed cleaning lady. She has nothing to do with the bloody deed, but puts the detective on the trail of mysterious truck deliveries from Eastern Europe.