A secluded house in the Black Forest and a body in the lake, a missing mother and a child hiding from the wolf: In "Tatort: ​​The Youngest Little Goat," Franziska Tobler and Friedemann Berg investigate in a world reminiscent of a dark fairy tale. Friedemann Berg isn't even on duty when he hears a child crying in a house at the edge of the forest. He enters the house and finds a girl huddled fearfully inside a grandfather clock. There are also bloodstains that suggest a crime has been committed. Nine-year-old Eliza is alone in the house and terrified. She can't say where her parents are or what terrible thing has happened. When her father's body is found weighted down with stones in a forest lake, Franziska Tobler suspects a case of domestic violence.

The woman who appears distraught and completely soaked at a Stuttgart police station on a rainy night shows no trace of having once been a much-admired "it girl." Pony Hübner reports her SUV stolen. The terrible twist: her two children, Hugo and Penelope, were in the car. The police find the vehicle in the Neckar River, but not quickly enough; Penelope is recovered only to be pronounced dead. Hugo, however, has vanished, as has the car thief. The Hübners are wealthy, and detectives Thorsten Lannert and Sebastian Bootz consider kidnapping the most likely scenario. Especially since Pony Hübner claims she has felt followed for several weeks, a concern her husband apparently dismissed as paranoia. The relationship between Pony Hübner and her husband Stefan seems strained, perhaps even broken, and even their shared anxiety over Hugo doesn't bring them closer together.

A death in Bremen's student scene keeps detectives Liv Moormann (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) and Linda Selb (Luise Wolfram) busy, assisted by their colleague Patrice Schipper (Tijan Njie) from the KDD (Criminal Investigation Department). As the investigation unfolds, an abyss of loneliness, overwhelm, and dashed hopes opens up. Law student Annalena Höpken (Annika Gräslund) is found dead near a nightclub in the morning. She was apparently pushed down a flight of stairs and died of a broken neck. Initial investigations indicate that she had been involved in serious arguments with her roommates (Shirin Eissa, Mitja Over, Joyce Sanhá, Michael Schweisser). Furthermore, Emil Klaßen (Robin Bongarts), a homeless man who attacked Selb and is carrying the deceased woman's cell phone, becomes a suspect. It turns out that Annalena Höpken suffered from immense performance pressure, which she tried to compensate for with stimulants.

On an abandoned industrial site on the outskirts of Berlin, a homeless man is found dead with bite marks. He may have been attacked by a wolf. Bonard and Karow use this information to scare off a wilderness enthusiast. This is Bonard's last case before her retirement, and on a whim, she joins wilderness instructor Professor Dara Kimmerer, leaving the case to Karow. While Bonard undergoes survival training in the forest, Karow discovers that the victim was murdered and encounters the mysterious man from the woods again. The investigative team delves into the world of survivalists and preppers, as everyone prepares for the end in their own way.