The wife of the Düsseldorf Police Council Rainer Bachmann is kidnapped. While trying to save his mother Monika, the adult son is shot dead. His widow Nicola desperately seeks support.
In the life of TV presenter Lisa, everything revolves around her talk show, celebrities and the ratings. There is just as little room for love as there is for her mother Maria. When the 66-year-old loses her memory after a fall in her apartment and wakes up in the hospital, she can only remember that she has never been to New York and sets off immediately. Lisa goes in search of Maria with her makeup artist Fred. She struck gold on a cruise ship that was just leaving for New York. As stowaways, the three have no choice but to earn the passage. While Fred is hired as an assistant by the Greek on-board magician Costa, Lisa and Maria have to work in room service. The crossing soon takes surprising turns for mother and daughter: Maria falls in love with the charming dancer Otto, who supposedly knows her from before, and Lisa takes a liking to the widowed statistician Axel Staudach, who is traveling with his son Florian.