Bärbel Schmitz buys her husband a shirt for his birthday. When she discovers a call for help from Bangladesh in it, a story begins that will turn Bärbel and her family's regular, conventional life completely upside down.

Germany, 1971: Erika (Anna Schudt) is actually completely overwhelmed by her work in the butchery of husband Kurt (Christian Erdmann), the education of three common children and additional obligations, which brings the village life, as her doctor also revealed that she is pregnant again. Another baby is the last thing she needs now, and so she decides to drive to her sister Charlotte (Alwara Höfels) to Cologne and let the baby abortively secretly abort. Since there are complications during the surgery and Erika can only be rescued, but her husband still learns from the matter. It comes to a huge dispute, in which another topic is the future of daughter Ulrike (Lene Oderich). Without further ado Erika then packs her things and moves with her children to Charlotte. But at a time when legislation inevitably makes her dependent on her husband, she is denied a self-determined new beginning. Erika decides to do something to change that ..