Die Pfefferkörner und der Schatz der Tiefsee (2020)

During the summer holidays, 12-year-old Alice visits her friend Tarun in Northern Ireland. After Tarun’s mother, Jaswinder, a marine researcher from Hamburg, is attacked at her research station, she becomes increasingly withdrawn around her son. Jaswinder continues her research project on the Mecklenburg coast, where she clashes with waste-company owner Robert Fleckmann. He apparently disposes of his waste cheaply in the sea to make a bigger profit. One night, Jaswinder is kidnapped. Alice and Tarun take on the case, assisted by siblings Johnny and Clarissa, who are also from Hamburg and are spending their summer holidays in Mecklenburg. Later, Hanna, a fisherman's daughter of the same age, joins them. At first, Alice and Tarun suspect her, since the marine nature reserve established at Tarun’s mother’s initiative has made many enemies for her among the financially struggling fishermen. They also receive help from the eccentric private detective Gertrud Silber, who breaks into the grounds of Fleckmann’s company with them to retrieve footage from a security camera showing Jaswinder’s kidnapper. The Peppercorns realize that Jaswinder was betrayed by a member of her own research team, and initially suspect her colleague Patrizia. The team was researching plastic waste in the oceans, and Jaswinder had made a major breakthrough using genetically modified microbes to combat plastic waste. The research could be sold for a high price and was therefore also sought after by shady circles, which is why Jaswinder had already been nervous. Gertrud Silber has meanwhile managed to enhance the security-camera images well enough to identify the employee Oliver as the kidnapper. Frustrated by his poor pay as a scientist, Oliver kidnapped Jaswinder on Fleckmann’s orders. Oliver manages to lock up the children and Patrizia, but Fleckmann, who has no intention of paying him, locks Oliver up too. There they find Jaswinder being held captive. Fleckmann intends to dispose of the group at sea without attracting attention. But Clarissa, the only one of the Peppercorns who is not being held captive, is sent data in time that leads to her friends’ rescue and Fleckmann’s arrest.