The small family circus Burani enchants audiences of all ages during its guest performance in Ludwigshafen. But when one of the employees lies dead in the ring the morning after the performance, Lena Odenthal is confronted with the harsh reality of circus life. Patriarch Lousiana cares little about Pit's death. She has enough to do with surviving her small business and keeping her daughter Felicitas in line. Besides, she didn't trust Pit. In fact, Lena and Kopper suspect that Pit and his brother Robbi used their winter stay in Tunisia to do smuggling. Not with drugs, that's for sure. The inspectors go in search of the unknown contraband.
Even more important is the question of whether there are moreCircus employees were involved - or whether Pit and Robbi made cruel enemies from outside with their fundraising method. The "Tatort: Zirkuskind" plays with the ambivalence between the magic of the ring and the fight for survival that takes place behind the scenes. Even Lena Odenthal is not insensitive to the aura associated with acrobats and clowns - and at the same time sees through that it doesn't have to be a matter of course for a younger generation to continue the struggle for survival. Acrobatic pride and melancholy are very close together here. Author Harald Göckeritz and director Till Endemann captured them for "Tatort: Zirkuskind", Steffi Kühnert and Liv Lisa Fries embody them in their entirety.