When love turns to hate: 'Hate Is My Love' is the first installment in a crime series set in the Bergisches Land region. The unconventional detective Mia Sommer is confronted with the dark side of the world's most beautiful emotion. Respected psychologist Tessa Winkler lies headfirst and drowned in a fountain near the Toelleturm, Wuppertal's most expensive residential area. Strangulation marks on her neck indicate she was held underwater. Detectives Mia Sommer and Björn Lassner initially focus their investigation on her ex-husband, who is using his grief to manipulate them. They also look into the father of a girl who died in an accident Tessa caused. But then another woman is found dead on the famous, colorful Holsteiner Treppe (Holsteiner Staircase), precisely between the two steps labeled 'Bad Conscience' and 'Honor'. Coincidence, or the beginning of a series of murders? Mia and Björn delve deeper into the pasts of the two victims and discover uncanny similarities in their love lives...