A depressed housewife whose husband is having an affair contemplates suicide, but changes her mind when she faces death by a killer hired to do her in.
Haunted by the death of her mother and without role models, dreamer Louise scours her world for someone to imitate. With the help of James Joyce's Ulysses and a taxi-driving poet, Louise discovers she is the woman she thought she would never be.
Viktor and Angelika are a straight couple. He is a professor of veterinary science and she has studied art history. Both are more interested in their hobbies and professions than in each other; also, Viktor isn't terribly interested in satisfying his wife anymore. Their upright relationship changes dramatically when Viktor gets to know Lotte, a former school friend of Angelika's. Back in school, Lotte would have done anything for Angelika.