The Cologne Ballauf/Schenk investigate among cleaners: "More illusion than reality" is the unanimous opinion about the stabbed Ingo Broich. He was heir by profession, gambled and cared very little about his father's cleaning company. No wonder that Jakob Broich prefers to give his fortune to others - for example to his lawyer Beate von Prinz (Jeanette Hain). This puts the commissioners (Klaus J. Behrendt, Dietmar Bär) in a piquant situation: Beate is soon among the suspects - and her husband is Ballaufs and Schenk's boss ...