Hunkeler macht Sachen

Turkish woman Aische Aydin is found beaten to death in her apartment in Basel. Her husband Ali is suspected, but remains silent and attempts suicide. Inspector Hunkeler cannot accept this. An amulet—depicting a couple in a boat—found at the crime scene catches his attention. Hunkeler has encountered such an amulet before, when he was investigating Roma clans in Alsace. Acquaintances of the Aydins confirm that the amulet belonged to neither Aische nor Ali. Shortly afterwards, Theo, the heroin-addicted ex-husband of a friend of Aische's, is found murdered. The police find a large quantity of heroin. The Aydins are now also linked to drug trafficking.

A summer of the century in Basel – but no vacation for Inspector Hunkeler. Instead of spending time with his partner Hedwig in Alsace, he has to take on a murky case: his family doctor, a liberal politician well known in the city, has been found murdered in her practice. A few drug addicts who had been supplied with methadone by her come under suspicion. But Hunkeler's instinct for the depths of the human psyche leads him unerringly down a different path.

Swiss allotment gardener Livius is murdered in his garden on French soil. The case must therefore be investigated by both the Swiss and French police. This leads to friction between the two forces. To make matters worse, Hunkeler has to cut short his vacation.

Hunkeler's last official act went awry: a diamond courier evaded surveillance, the goods ended up in the Basel sewage system, and Lüdi suffered life-threatening injuries. Plagued by guilt, pensioner Hunkeler goes in search of the "silver pebbles". Ultimately, even as a retiree, he is ahead of the pack with his sense of the longings of the little people.

Even in retirement, Hunkeler cannot give up investigating. In Basel, a theater director is murdered, and his body is found with its eyes missing.