Juliane Kostner is an attractive woman in her prime: charming, fashion-conscious, worldly. It's no coincidence that she has been head buyer at a luxury department store in Berlin for 30 years. Juliane's private life, on the other hand, is not quite so rosy. Single Juliane doesn't have a particularly trusting relationship with her grown-up daughter Henrike, for example. But when Henrike, who is heavily pregnant, has to go into hospital after a fainting spell, her husband, the busy pilot Martin, has no choice but to ask Juliane for a favor: She is to look after their two grandchildren for the duration of Henrike's stay in hospital.

Music teacher Carlo, an easygoing old rock'n'roller, meets doctor Ellen in hospital. She is completely stressed out, so that even son Franz often falls by the wayside. A short time later, Carlo makes an unforgivable mistake: fed up with the pupils' never-ending paltry questions, he advises Franz, whose anger at his mother is slowly boiling over, that he should simply report her to the Youth Welfare Office.

Little Berthold Wettelsteck is an avid comic book reader and is particularly fond of the comic book hero Nick Knatterton's stories. Until the story suddenly becomes reality and he suddenly finds himself in it.