How does hatred arise that does not shy away from murder? The first part of this comprehensive film trilogy illuminates the history and background of the NSU (National Socialist Underground). The focus is on the development and radicalization of the right-wing scene since the early 1990s, the increasing propensity for violence in the right-wing milieu and the emergence of the terror cell. How did three young people with middle-class backgrounds, who in 1989 lived in a world in which everything and nothing seemed possible for their generation, decide to join the right-wing terrorist underground?

How could it happen that predominantly only one direction was determined? In September 2000, 14-year-old Semiya was awakened at four in the morning. Her father is said to have had an accident. Only in the hospital does she learn that eight shots were fired at Enver Şimşek. He is in a coma and dies two days later. There are hardly any traces, but a witness claims to have accompanied Enver on a supposed drug transport. The investigation focuses on the family. When the witness's testimony is refuted, the investigation fizzles out. Over the next few years, 8 more businessmen, 7 Turks and one Greek, are murdered with the same weapon....

Why do we still have no clarity about the murderers' environment and their network? Paul Winter, a target investigator in Thuringia, is called to the head of the LKA together with his superior and closest confidant Walter Ahler in January 1998. Three right-wing radicals have gone into hiding, and the target manhunt is to find them. What begins as a routine assignment turns into a year-long struggle with the institutions, as the two police officers encounter unexpected resistance - from other authorities as well as within their own house...