Nick Baumgarten's private life is back on track, but the violent death of an Aargau author presents him with a hard nut to crack. For one, there is the gruff, taciturn veterinarian the dead man lived with, happily it seems, but whose alibi is extremely shaky. Then Baumgarten has the Aargau Cultural Commission to deal with, or, more precisely, its former president, Cuno von Ottenfels, who tries to explain how cash flows between the State and culture with a big "C" while hectoring Nick to read more of what he calls good literature. And as always, the journalist Steff Schwager knows way too much and stirs the pot with an article in the Aargauer Zeitung. To top it all off, Nick must hurry to solve his most pressing staffing issue: Peter Pfister is retiring at the end of the month and no replacement is in sight.