Young Monika is found lying in state in the branches of a tree, twelve meters above the ground. She's dead. Inspector Lucas sees it as a kind of funeral ceremony. But who does that? The investigations lead her and her team to the idyllically situated Aschenbachhof, to a home for girls who are difficult to train. The victim had disappeared from there months earlier. Lucas meets Polly at the home. She shared a room with Moni. The death of her friend affects the girl very deeply, and Lucas arrives just in time when Polly is about to slit her wrists. Lucas and her team find out that the girls have repeatedly escaped to the village. When Lucas comes home in the evening, Polly is already in her apartment. Lucas is touched by the girl and, against all reason, she keeps Polly with her for the night.
While Max lovingly supervises Polly, Lucas delves ever deeper into the chasms surrounding the home. Tom and Judith find out that Matthieu Egginger, a young man from the village, was in touch with the home girls and ran a sex chat channel from which the girls made money - and Egginger made money with them. During interrogation, Egginger reports that caretaker Hannes Lenz threatened him. He had a close relationship with the girls and put massive pressure on him the night before Moni disappeared. But Polly also seems to have information, and Lucas and her team also come across inconsistencies in the girls' home files that point to a stay abroad.
Did the private sponsor of the home, under the direction of the tough businessman Christian Kroiß, become guilty of something with the help of the home manager Frieda Schreiber? Or is the motive for the murder to be found in the immediate environment of the victim? For Commissioner Lucas, Polly becomes the key figure in this case.