Professor Karl Michaeli is a former star cellist and grantler , as he is in the book. After the death of his beloved wife Maria in 2014, the retired music professor lives alone in a three-room apartment in Vienna. To his displeasure, several foreign families are housed in his apartment building. The widowed, free-spirited apartment building owner Esther Polgar also houses refugees in his home. These are a special thorn in Karl's side.

Annika dreams of having a synthetic mermaid fin -- expensive fun for the supermarket cashier who longs for distraction from the worries of her everyday life.

Wanda's world has been turned upside down when her teenage daughter Nina suddenly turns up in a hijab. Nina has secretly converted to Islam.