In 1980s East Germany, Barbara is a Berlin doctor banished to a country medical clinic for applying for an exit visa. Deeply unhappy with her reassignment and fearful of her co-workers as possible Stasi informants, Barbara stays aloof, especially from the good natured clinic head, Andre.
The sisters Claire and Rita Krug have been merciless rivals for their mother's favor since early childhood. Claire, tied to a wheelchair at an early age due to a tragic accident, flees - barely an adult - from the oppressive atmosphere in her parents' home into a new life as an architect in Israel. She breaks off contact with the family radically.
