Jakob Kuisl is a fearsome executioner from the ancient Bavarian town of Schongau. It is through his hands that justice is administered. The townspeople fear and avoid Jacob, considering the executioner akin to the devil...August 1662. The executioner from Schongau, Jakob Kuisl, arrived in the imperial city of Regensburg to visit his sick sister. But as soon as he crossed the threshold of the ill-fated house, a terrible picture was revealed to the eyes of the executioner who had seen everything. The sister and her husband are in a pool of their own blood, endless emptiness in their eyes, gaping wounds on their neck... And a moment later, guards burst into the house and Kuizl was seized as an obvious murderer. The city council intends to torture a confession out of him. And now Jacob will have to experience the skill of his Regensburg colleague... Kuisl has no doubt: someone set him up. But who and why?.. Perhaps only his daughter Magdalena is able to get to the bottom of the truth and save her father from a cruel death...