Zoran Pingel

The engineer Rosalie leads a life without standing still. She doesn't feel old for a long time, only mature. When Rosalie returns to Germany after a fainting spell at a solar project in Africa, it's just supposed to be a breather. When she shows up at her bourgeois sister Margret's with a huge container, she is not very enthusiastic about the surprise visit. The retired teacher sees right through that Rosalie isn't staying with her voluntarily. The well-travelled woman is broke! It seems like a miracle that there are a huge chunk of banknotes in a hole in the wall of the room. On the other side of the wall there is the room of the highly talented high school graduate Karla, who rents a part of Margret's house with her father Harald. After a failed first meeting, Rosalie befriends with the wheelchair-bound teenager and sets her mind on getting Karla out of her sheltered isolation, even against her will.

Twelve-year-old Mia and her classmate Benny take a class trip to the Gruber Family's mountain ranch, where they begin to suspect something's fishy: Mysterious witching symbols appear, the Gruber's cattle falls sick, the well water turns black and the barn burns down. What the heck is going on here? Are they being haunted by an evil mountain spirit? Or is someone trying to put the Grubers out of business? Mia and Benny get unexpected support from their new classmate Johannes. Together they follow their handful of clues and leads: How did the poison the kids found wind up in the stable? What is the new cook hiding, and why? And what about the Mayor, who wants to get at the Gruber's property? Young Luca Gruber blames himself for trying to find the fabled Hoard of the Black King up on the mountain. Did he bring the curse of the Black King on his family? But Mia is too sensible to believe in fairy tales...