Helen Dorn – Prague message

Helen Dorn in crisis: A foreign assignment in Prague brings Helen Dorn to the brink of collapse.

A dramatic chase after a criminal ends with two dead – and a bullet in Helen Dorn’s (Anna Loos) chest. She survives the emergency surgery. But not even the harsh love of her father Richard Dorn (Ernst Stötzner) can save her from the physical and mental consequences. The bitter consequence: Helen’s transfer to internal affairs has already been decided when the young BKA commissioner Felix Schwarz (Christoph Letkowski) asks her for help in a special matter.

A message in a bottle from Prague contains a barely decipherable cry for help from a kidnapped man whom the authorities thought was long dead: Entrepreneur Paul Westerberg (August Zirner) was kidnapped in Prague in 2014, and contact with his captors broke off. The message that has now surfaced, however, turns the case on its head, because apparently the kidnappers were never interested in ransom, but in revenge: the man was locked up and isolated, for years.

But who would have cause for such cruel punishment? Can Westerberg have survived this martyrdom to this day?

Helen initially distrusts her overly dynamic colleague, but travels with him to Prague anyway. As they investigate among witnesses from the past, the unlikely pair discovers contradictions that shed new light on Westerberg’s disappearance. A break-in in Helen’s hotel room then provides the certainty: her presence has startled the kidnappers – which means: Westerberg is still alive!

For Helen and Felix, a race against time begins – and against the kidnappers, who commit a perfidious, cruel act to sabotage the investigation: As Helen holds a crucial piece of the puzzle of the case, Felix has to inform her that her father has been attacked by a robbery killer at home in NRW, has been critically injured and has been in a coma ever since.

Is Helen’s collapse inevitable, or can she use her last ounce of strength to solve the mystery of the kidnappers’ identity?

Photos: © ZDF / Jindrich Mynarik