In the Bavarian village of Schladerbach, the kobold Hatschipuh and his comrades live, of whose existence only Grandpa Reiter is aware. When the building constructor Lederer builds himself a new mansion, the subterranean settlement of the kobolds gets destroyed, and Grandpa Reiter sees himself forced to move them into his barn. But this abode as well is soon threatened: Since the farm is no longer profitable, Father Reiter plans to sell it…
A hiker is found dead in a remote forest that is popularly known as the "Murder Hole". Opposite the victim is a melting snowman with one eye missing. The start of a series of murders in the forest area near Freudenstadt. The handwriting is always the same: all victims show frostbite, while the left eye is covered with a black gem. The investigative team Maris Bächle and Konrad Diener has Florentin Sneelin in its sights, a reproductive doctor who lives in a romantic moated castle whose ice cellar not only stores champagne. The suspect knew the victims from a stay in a children's home many years ago. The teachers there enforced discipline and order using sometimes sadistic methods. Their wards did the same. There was a strict caste system among the children. Sneelin belonged to the lowest caste. He was a so called "Snow Child", one that his mother wanted "to foist" on his father.
