A cruise ship rescues 28 refugees from the Mediterranean. When the captain is ordered to head for Libya, the situation escalates.

Journalist Daniel Mandelkern leaves Hamburg on assignment to interview Dirk Svensson, a reclusive children's book author who lives alone on the Italian side of Lake Lugano with his three-legged dog. After stumbling on a manuscript of Svensson's about a complicated menage a trois, Mandelkern is plunged into mysteries past and present.

Uncovering the background that led to the fateful meeting and how the political drama took its course.