It's a picture-perfect summer's day when Prof. Boerne's golf tournament in Grothenburg is suddenly interrupted by a dead man in a tuxedo. With the tournament victory firmly in mind, Boerne is briefly tempted to deny his profession and to assume that Dr. Raimund Strothoff, the Münster banker, killed himself. But bondage marks on one of the ankles cause Boerne to call Inspector Thiel.