Berlin, 1929. Detective Inspector Rath, was a successful career officer in the Cologne Homicide Division before a shooting incident in which he inadvertently killed a man. He has been transferred to the Vice Squad in Berlin, a job he detests, even though he finds a new friend in his boss, Chief Inspector Wolter. There is seething unrest in the city and the Commissioner of Police has ordered the Vice Squad to ruthlessly enforce the ban on May Day demonstrations. The result is catastrophic with many dead and injured, and a state of emergency is declared in the Communist strongholds of the city
It is 1927 and Gereon Rath experiences a city in a state of ecstasy. Cocaine, illegal night clubs, street riots between the rising Nazis and the communists. The young and ambitious inspector, new in town and ordered to work for the vice squad, meddles with the investigations to a murder - and is not yet aware that he has stirred up a hornet's nest.
