On an autumn morning in 1941, a dead body with a swastika carved on its chest is found in a secluded Prague street of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The drama of the whole situation is underlined by the fact that the victim is chief commissioner Antonín Kohorouz - a role model of the police force with a number of solved cases behind him. His colleague Petr Dressler, an old friend of Kohorouz's, but whose best years are long behind him, is taking on the case. Under the strict supervision of the Nazi apparatus, Dressler begins to unravel the threads of a complicated case. He soon realizes that the case has a political background, and danger begins to threaten Dressler himself and his family...