Peter Richter (Isaak Dentler), CEO of the weapons manufacturer Elbe Defence, is kidnapped in Algeria by a group called Mutaridu al-kuffar ("Expeller of the Infidels"). Elbe Defence's tank factory, built with German tax subsidies in Constantine, Algeria, is about to begin production. Shortly before, Berlin also approved the delivery of 20,000 MRG 45 assault rifles to Algeria. While Ralf Eley (Ken Duken), BKA liaison officer at the German embassy in Algiers, tries to find the kidnapped man on his own, the incident is reason enough for Katharina Prinz (Anna Schudt), head of the Middle East department at the Foreign Office in Berlin, to enforce a halt to all arms deliveries to North Africa.


Ralf Eley not only has to deal with the career-focused young Colonel Abderrahmane Toumi (Dali Benssalah) of the Algerian secret service and General Ibahim Soudani (Hammou Graïa) of the ruling Unity Party, who withhold all important information from him. The 35-year-old self-confident Amel Samroui (Hania Amar), who belongs to General Soudani's clan and with whom Eley has had a secret relationship for two years, is placed in front of him as an investigating judge. The discovery of this relationship would result in his immediate expulsion. Meanwhile, in Berlin, Katharina Prinz has no less powerful opponents in the German arms lobby, whose influence reaches deep into the ministries. Among them, Reinhold Wegner (Martin Brambach), a Social Democrat, former member of the Bundestag, friend of the Algerian General Soudani and lobbyist for the Meininger-Rau rifle factory, where the kidnapped man until recently was a member of the board. Eley succeeds in locating Peter Richter. However, he discovers that the Algerian kidnappers around Djamel Benmedi (Raphaël Acloque) and Sadek Tadjer (Sofiane Zermani) are not jihadists at all, but were active on the side of the democratic opposition during the "Arab Spring" and are apparently planning to attack the transport of MRG 45 assault rifles in Germany, which will leave the factory for Algeria.