In his sixth case the Basel inspector Peter Hunkeler is confronted with a murder, which, at federal level, becomes a rather sensitive case that’s more suited for the historians than the police. A man’s corpse is found on NewYear’s Day in an allotment on the outskirts of Basel, on land that comes under French jurisdiction. The dead man had been shot, but was found hanging on a butcher’s hook from the roof of his garden shed – just like butchers hang the carcasses of dead animals. The Basel police are not allowed to investigate the scene of the crime – the French crime department in Alsatian Colmar are the ones in charge here. Before long the identity of the dead man is revealed. He was Swiss, living in Basel, but is it really Anton Flückiger? The clues lead to Alsace, and to the affluent Emmental in Berne, and then events from the last weeks of the Second World War suddenly come to light, the wounds of which have never healed in Alsace ...