Episode list

1944, journalist Reynaert believes a nightly Nazi military execution is an aftermath of four murders since the Great War. It started in 1913, when Houtegem's chevalier (hereditary knight) de Bellicourt, according to a rumor rules supreme as mayor of the conservative Catholic party, full of disdain for the 'feudally' subject peasantry and laborers. His mistresses included the wife of the weak baron de Halleux. The German imperial troops invaded Belgium to his anger, but he made sure they arrested Reynaert for exposing their abuses just like his own earlier.

1915, mayor de Bellicourt works on the German commandant for permission to see the baroness, but she flirts with cavalry officers- until they're transferred to the eastern front. Journalist Reynaert, jailed for anti-German reporting, is released after a year. He studies forensic medicine, works and teaches in Geneva. In Houtegem the baron goes missing, and later woodland game warden Sassen shortly after he told only the mayor 'a horrible secret about the baron' and made sure estate laborers ended up finding his corps. He also stumbled on a villagers smuggling trail. The mayor tries to have the corps officially declared unidentifiable, but fails in the end. Reynaerts' son has to stop printing the newspaper in Holland when people get scared to help him, until the Novemebr 11, 1918 armistice. Dad returns, determined to clear things up, but fear still rules.

After the German capitulation, mayor de Bellicourt rearranges positions for his family and vassals, bribing loyalty and discretion. He wants baroness de Hallaux back as lover, but she retreated for prayer and painting, cryptically alluding t her husband's murder, which is ascribed to two German occupation officers, so she can get a war pension, but Reynaert finds evidence of their innocence. Just after Karel Tanghe brags in the pub he'll inform Reyaert about the Stassen murder, he is found after a 'fatal fall'. The mayor's former maid Emma Goegebuer is found with a baby corpse, which she claims stillborn, keeping quiet about the bastard's highborn father. Victor De Jonghe is falsely convicted to death after suggesting Cesar Priem's part to Reynaert.

The day after boasting drunk at a family gathering after pub closing, farmer Eugène Mertens disappears, his corpse is found allegedly killed by a ship engine, which a forensic expert disproves. As mayor de Bellicourt has his constable Cesar Priem, who was seen arguing and again about around the time of death, sabotage any investigation, ruling it was an accident, Constant Reynaert campaigns in his newspaper, which rapidly becomes popular, gathering funds for the widow mother Maria and hiring a champion tracker dog. Political connections allow the mayor to get the Ghent court to dismiss the case, but Reynaert's 'St. Anthony fund' raises enough money from all the province to appeal to the Bruges court of appeal, where the mayor's Catholic party isn't in power, so a serious investigation finally occurs.

Two of De Bellicourt's loyal followers, policeman Cézar Priem and his in-law Valere Blanckaert, stand trial for the murder of Eugene Mertens. Most of Houtegem either attends or gives testimony, most clearly partial either to innocence in the mayor's camp or guilt in MP Reynaert's. Even the investigating officials and forensic expertise contradict each-other, conforming to either the Catholic or the Socialist logic. Both parties play the man more then the ball. The jury decision is quite clear.

Despite the double murder conviction, MP Reynaert keeps calling for further investigation concerning the other murders, notably of warden Smessaert and baron de Halleux. Countless rumors are looked into, even from emigrated villagers. The convicts are released early. Widows privately confide the truth about Smessen's death after justice closes the official investigation. Both baroness-dowager and squire-mayor die. Furious to be left out of his testament, her companion-confident tells Reynaert everything, but he still lacks proof. 1944, the next war brings only another unsolved murder.