"Captain" Werner Träsch is quite astonished: the fresh wind of social change is also blowing among the tradition-conscious Berlin garbage workers. His boss, Dorn, has got it into his head that women should finally be employed as refuse collectors.

Forensic biologist Inga Ehrenberg is so absorbed in her work at the Forensic Medicine Institute that she doesn't initially notice how lonely she is after her divorce a few years ago. It is only when her father claims that she has a half-sister and a falconer asks her to take care of a young falcon that she finds herself in a whirlwind of long-hidden, painful feelings. She begins to tame the falcon, convinced that the bird will never leave her.