"The Middle Ages have not passed away. They lie somewhere in Thuringia. Anyone can end up in them and become the dust of history." Hobby historian Ernst Steinhöfer disappears without a trace from the tranquil town of Weißensee in Thuringia. The investigations of the experienced Erfurt police officers falter until their intern realizes: this is not the first mysterious disappearance. The case seems to echo a crime that the town's inhabitants committed together in the distant past. But is that possible? Is the terrible deed repeating itself because the same people are living with the same greed within the same walls as hundreds of years ago?