German businessman Carsten Neuer travels to Norway to finish the impossible translation of some Norwegian poems by Tarjei Vesaas into Chinese, a project of his late wife. He hires Niko, a down-on-his-luck tour guide, to drive him to the poet's home and places of inspiration to stimulate his own translation. On the road, the ghost of Carsten's wife appears to him, while Niko struggles with the sudden consequences of his girlfriend's pregnancy. On this journey, two very different men come to realize the transforming power of love, the limits of language, and the human need for friendship.

The hunt for the "Krampuskiller" has left its mark on the psyche of detective Ellie Stocker and her Austrian colleague Gedeon Winter is in a coma. When a young tourist is found dead near Salzburg, German and Austrian criminal police have to work together again.

The ambitious young civil servant Yela Antic is allowed to prove her skills for the first time as a liaison officer in the case of the German Tonia Roth, who was murdered in Austria. The body was found in the Zill valley near a river and the murder has distinctive features. Meanwhile, Ellie Stocker has to take a forced break because she's been struggling with flashbacks since the "Krampuskiller" case. Only when another young woman is murdered does she meet Gedeon again.

When Andreas arrives in the remote valley in the Austrian Alps, he is only about four years old - nobody knows for sure. He grows up to become a skilled farmhand and, as a young man, joins a work crew that builds one of the first mountain railroads, bringing light and noise to the valley along with electricity. He also finds the love of his life in Marie, but their happiness is short-lived. Only many years later, when Andreas embarks on his final journey, she is with him once again. And in amazement Andreas looks back at all the years that lie behind him.