A beastly murder from thirty years ago lies on the detective’s desk – a cold case. It is the last job before he retires. He considers reopening it totally unnecessary, because there are no new facts in this rumor-laden case, better known as ‘the Mill Murder’. The probable murderer was caught and, after a convincing testimony by his spouse, released. No one understood why she wanted to clear him of the charges of the murder of his young lover: sixteen bullets, the pistol emptied twice. What was her motive? And why has she, now a widow, begun an affair with the new investigating officer?

The old mill lies just out of town and is still a meeting place for courting couples. The detective visits the crime scene and tries to get inside the murderer’s mind. He makes love to the murderer's wife, buys a pistol and makes preparations for a realistic reconstruction of the event with his young assistant.

We read his police report as a testament, a confession left behind in which the tension continuously mounts. Just as the writer of detective stories seeks the perfect murder – more so than the career criminal for whom it is enough not to be caught – so the detective longs for the perfect murderer.