Zuagroast - Ein Gartenkrimi (2025)

Journalist Vera Horvarth is the single mother of 15-year-old Letta. After returning from Vienna to the village in southern Burgenland where she grew up, her mother Hilda gets her an interview at the local paper, Der Burgenländische Bote, whose editor-in-chief would rather publish gardening stories than ones about climate change. For research, and after a slug infestation in her parents’ garden, Vera visits the Green Thumbs Club, run by Johanna, where she befriends Eva Neuleitner, who has also moved to the area. Local resident Elfriede Großschädl calls Eva, who is from elsewhere, a “Zuagroaste” (newcomer). Letta and Eva’s daughter Carla attend a dance class together. Eva is married to architect Paul. Paul invites Vera to his home for brunch, where she meets his business partner Harald Zieserl of Pannonia-Bau and Harald’s wife, Sylvia. Vera is supposed to write advertising copy for their construction project. Eva suffers under her tyrannical husband, Paul. While Paul has various affairs, including with Vicky and Sylvia Zieserl, Eva begins a relationship with the gardener Finz (Serafin) Kreishofer. Vera meets her ex-boyfriend Tom again; he has gone into the gin business. After Eva mixes the poison from angel’s trumpets into Paul’s food, he suffers digestive problems, begins hallucinating, and makes a public fool of himself. When Paul Neuleitner then disappears, two criminal investigators look into his disappearance. Because of his wife’s affair, Harald Zieserl demands a divorce, but Sylvia blackmails him with her knowledge of Paul’s bribe payments to Harald. A photo of Paul appears online, showing him naked and bound. Vera learns from Eva that Paul had repeatedly been violent toward her. Eva had dropped a police complaint after he threatened to take her daughter away. Detective Grandits discovers that Eva had three miscarriages. In the garden of Johanna’s gardening club there is a raised garden bed, where a dog digs up Paul’s body. Detective Marlies Murlasits suspects the gardener Finz (Serafin) Kreishofer of murdering Paul and burying him there: he has no alibi, and his relationship with Eva gives him a motive. Dominik Gratzl represents a class-action lawsuit against Paul Neuleitner. He does not believe that someone harmed by Paul was the killer, because that person would then lose out on their compensation. According to Gratzl, Paul had an affair with Irene Tschida, and her husband, Hans, is said to have died by suicide because of it. Finz admits to burying Paul, but says he only wanted to help Eva, who claims she had already found him dead. Two witnesses, Herbert and his partner Herbert, come forward, saying they saw Vicky with Paul at the spa in Bad Tatzmannsdorf. In Paul’s apartment, Vera finds a video showing Paul having sex with Sylvia Zieserl. Vicky is also in the video: she binds and gags Paul with latex and accuses him of having driven her brother Hans to his grave. Cook Mathilde Werderits finds out through a receptionist she knows that “Vicky” is actually hairdresser Stefanie Lentsch. Stefanie is arrested by the police; it remains to be determined whether the charge will be failure to render assistance or manslaughter. Paul died from a severe allergic reaction to latex after being bound and gagged with it. Vera publishes her investigation into the Paul Neuleitner case in the Burgenländischer Bote, where she is given a permanent position. Vera and her friends from the gardening club discuss how the story turned out. Vera notices that her dog Herr Schröder’s ball has been chewed up. She picks it up and puts it in the trash can. In a flashback to the night of the crime, viewers learn that Eva found her husband bound and gagged in the cellar. When she tries to untie him, things escalate. Her husband insults, kicks, and humiliates her. Eva silences him by stuffing a red latex ball into Paul’s mouth, triggering an allergic shock.