Heinz Kachelhof scrubs the stubborn dirt off his beloved garden gnome with devotion when a shot disturbs the bourgeois idyll. The dwarf bursts into a thousand pieces. The next morning the war between neighbours gets worse: Irene Kachelhof (Angelika Bartsch) finds her brother-in-law dead in the garden. He was murdered. A new case for the Dortmund investigative duo Stefan Balko (Bruno Eyron) and Klaus Krapp (Ludger Pistor). You’re being put to the test. A survey of local residents is unsuccessful. Instead, the situation continues to escalate. On Kurt Rottlinger’s (Andreas Windhuis) tranquil estate the garden house is set on fire. Balko and Krapp have no choice but to investigate the nightly events in the „battlefield“. They lie in wait and soon find out who the first suspect is.