Season 57 (2026)

A confused, 16-year-old girl is found in Dresden at night with a blood-stained scalpel. She reports that her father has kept her and her sister Jana imprisoned in a cellar for life, and that Jana is still there. Detective Winkler believes the traumatized teenager, while Schnabel has his doubts. Investigations and forensic examinations uncover evidence of family bloodstains – and suddenly Amanda herself is under suspicion of murder.

In the Black Forest, Detective Friedemann Berg discovers a frightened nine-year-old girl (Eliza) hiding in a clock case. Shortly afterward, her father's body, weighed down with stones, is found in a forest lake. His colleague Franziska Tobler and a child psychologist investigate, while Berg tries to help the selectively mute child overcome her trauma and find the missing mother.

During the final rehearsal of Haydn's "The Creation," a member of the props department is found shot dead at the opera house—posed as if in a stage production. A weapon from the costume department is missing. Ballauf and Schenk's investigation initially leads them to the singers, but soon a second murder occurs.