The world of Teresa Brandt ( Katharina Böhm ) turns upside down when her husband, Hans ( Götz Schubert ), unexpectedly falls into a coma. A woman is faced with a strenuous task - she has to take care of the entire economy, home and child herself. He does not give up hope that his beloved will recover and tries to cope with the task. The situation becomes even more complicated when the local engineer Sören Gawron ( Mark Waschke ) appears on the farm . The couple develops a thread of sympathy with each other. Their relationship grows stronger with each passing day.
A dinghy drifts ashore on some forsaken beach. Its passenger is a Sri Lankan boy. Ben, a former Stasi-prisoner, saves and decides to hide him. But nothing escapes the small island community for long and soon the local policeman becomes suspicious. He and Ben used to be on opposite sides of the fence and now, as the fate of a refugee from far away unfolds, their own past catches up with them.