In a robbery on a money transporter, the driver is shot dead. The perpetrator can escape with the loot, but his presumed accomplice has to be released due to a lack of evidence. Shortly thereafter, Ballauf and Schenk receive a mysterious mail. The inspectors make their way to Neu-Schaffrath, a village that had been resettled because of the open-cast lignite mining, where the letter had been posted. In this area there are only a few residents who defiantly oppose the resettlement. When a young man from the village, fleeing from the two inspectors, falls into the lignite mine and dies in an accident, it is obvious that some in this neighborhood know more than they want to admit.