Youssef's cousin Jamila is said to be forced into marriage, but at the henna evening the German groom is disfigured with baseball bats. Soon afterwards, Youssef and his fellow detective Anne Fuchs find Jamila's secret lover - dead.

In this prequel to the TV series, the individual fates of the members of the later "Red Bracelets" and how they came together are told.

On an impulse, 60 year old Charlotte leaves her husband stranded at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. A deep and driven instinct has her setting off, away from her old mundane life as a grandmother, a mother, a wife, and towards a new and different life. Little does she know that her granddaughter, Jo, a wonderfully whimsical child, is hiding in the back of the car. Charlotte’s spontaneous escape triggers off a journey, not only for her and her granddaughter, but also for her husband Paul and daughter Alex. As Paul and Alex pursue Charlotte and Jo across the countryside, they stumble into their own mishaps, self discoveries and emotional confrontations.

The lawyer Franziska Schlüter works for the Aescuria insurance and is responsible for processing applications for disbursement of occupational disability policies. The company policy provides as a guideline to prevent the approval as far as possible. When the widow of a victim, who committed suicide after being rejected, storms the office to loudly accuse these machinations, Franziska begins to doubt the correctness of her work and to rethink. She quits and works as a freelance lawyer to help injured parties legally to get their rights. First she deals with the case of a family in the neighborhood. The father has been in a wheelchair since an accident. However, the Strelaus have not yet seen any money from the insurance company. Initially not taken seriously by colleagues, the shy woman takes on the fight against the health insurance system and has to fight against resistance and above all with her own self-doubt.

Eifel landlady Toni Janssen wants a child, but not necessarily a man. After an alcohol-fueled slip, her ex-boyfriend Hajü, of all people, gets her hopes up. Meanwhile, Heidi accidentally meets an old childhood friend.