Writing
On a winter morning, a mother goes to waken her son Heinrich; his bed is empty. She leaves her flat to find him. The neighbors' door, with a Star of David painted on it, is ajar, the furnishings in disarray, the family gone. She asks passersby, runs to the police then on to the rail yard. Flashbacks show that Heinrich and the neighbors' son Paul are six years old and best friends. Paul's family's deportation is expected soon; Heinrich's mother tells her son that they're going to Toyland. Heinrich wants to go with them, has a bag packed, and listens for their departure. His mother realizes he's joined them, and her resolve becomes more urgent. Will she arrive in time to save Heinrich?
Together with his students, Ralph is faced with an unpleasant task: The evening school is moving to an innovative educational center. Ralph thinks this is a bad joke.
An invitation to an old childhood friend's 40th birthday throws the Baumgartners' hitherto happy life into disarray and makes them question their previous concept of life. Marie and Markus Baumgartner are a picture-book couple. But everyday working life and two children make it hard for the couple to catch their breath. An invitation to the 40th birthday of Marie's former best friend from school, Heike, including a long weekend, comes at just the right time. Without further ado, the Baumgartners hire Grandpa Walter as a babysitter and travel to Marie's old Bavarian home. The surprise on the spot is huge: Heike has achieved everything the two friends had once dreamed of. The chubby duckling has become a beautiful swan and she is living her dream job as a photographer. She lives in a dream house by the lake with her smart husband Hans.
Primary school teacher Sabine Schuster suffers a sudden stroke during a theatre rehearsal with her pupils. Doctors are able to save her life in hospital, but the path back to everyday life is difficult and uncertain. For Sabine's husband Stefan, a forester, nothing is as it was either. While Sabine has to laboriously relearn things that are taken for granted, such as speaking or walking, in rehab, Stefan adapts the house in Ilmenau, Thuringia, to his wife's needs in the hope that the familiar surroundings will do her good. But Sabine is so disappointed by her condition that she initially resists everything that will help her recover. Out of shame, she avoids contact with her usual surroundings. She misses her work as a teacher and hiking. Seemingly lost in the mill of the care system, the new nurse Iryna, organized by Stefan, brings new hope with her very own, optimistic and demanding manner.
