The body of a young woman is washed up on the North Sea coast. On her, Inspector Nora Jaspers finds the phone number of Karl Kress, a notorious and much feared Berlin political journalist. Though Kress denies knowing the woman, Nora finds out that the victim was a Ukrainian prostitute - and that Kress was her client. He admits that he used her to gather information against Police President Kolberg, whom he suspects of being deeply involved in a prostitute ring. What he doesn't know is that Nora is Kolberg's estranged daughter ...