SYNOPSIS

What the French call “Petite Mort” actually ends fatally in a wooded area near Nuremberg. Christian Ranstedt, married and father of two children, professor at the University of Erlangen and respected citizen of the city of Nuremberg, was killed by two shots to the head at close range while making love in his car.

When the police arrived, both car doors were open. The driver’s seat with the dead Ranstedt is pushed far back. The person who was in the car with him has disappeared. Nothing suggests her identity. Ranstedt’s wife Julia believed her husband was at the university. For her and her two children, a world that seemed indestructible suddenly collapses. Why was Christian Ranstedt murdered? Why at such a piquant moment? And why did whoever was in the car with him stay alive?