Zurich, March 1920: Josephine Wyss, who recently became an official private detective, is struggling to get by with small jobs. By chance, she learns of a murder in a posh Zurich mansion: in Villa Patumbah, once built with money from the tobacco plantations on Sumatra and run as a retirement home for several years, a resident is found strangled in his room. The circumstances of the crime suggest that the murder has something to do with the history of the extravagant house.
As the police are stalling, the home's director commissions the young investigator to conduct her own inquiries. In the process, Josephine once again crosses paths with Detective Sergeant Bader, and there are also a few other people who find her questions inconvenient. Suddenly, she finds herself confronted not only with a mysterious crime whose traces point to the colonial past, but also with her own history.
After Josephine's flat was burned down in the first volume, she is now living in a house belonging to her brother-in-law. The whole family is pressuring her to finally return to the bosom of the rich and respected family, which Josephine is trying to avoid at all costs. She realises that her parents' fortune must also have something to do with the inglorious era of colonialism.