The story, set in the medieval period, tries to explain three huge linden trees whose branches intertwine to cover the entire cemetery of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Berlin.
While he decides whether to tell the authorities or to flee the scene of the crime, the city constables find him and arrest him for the murder.
At his trial, facts come out that link him to the victim, and it appears that he will be hanged, despite all his protests that he is innocent.
Each of the brothers will plant a linden tree with its crown in the ground and its roots in the sky.
The story was written in German and originally published in Die Alpen in 1912.