Shortly before her 40th birthday, the successful surgeon Anne May is plagued by self-doubt: Actually, she would have to be satisfied, since she has long been married to her childhood sweetheart Peter and has built up a working family life with him. Nevertheless, Anne is deeply unhappy. When her husband is on a business trip, she meets Carolin Winter, the mother of a school friend of her son. Quickly, the two women make friends, Anne gets carried away by the joie de vivre of the native Chilean.

The obscure philosopher Georg Hermes almost withdrew from the world to concentrate on his studies, especially Heraclitus, having no relationship since his mother's death. When he wants a new suit for a lecture (actually very minor) about his new book, he meets the sisters Franziska, Breate and Marthe, who run a boutique, share a house and have a lover each. Those invite Georg to dinner, Franziska even on dates. Falling off a boat he gets naked with her, and they become lovers. The girls all take to Hermes and get him to move in, spoiled by all and offered polygamy.

Although photographer Horn has been back from Scotland for a while, he still has to think about his irritating and fleeting encounter with a stranger on his journey. Due to a mix-up, some of the stranger's valuables are sent to him.

Because of the power of love, the last year of Franz Kafka's life becomes his happiest. The well-known writer has never before been able to allow himself to experience intimacy, he suffers from tuberculosis and is dependent on his overbearing family. In the summer of 1923, he met Dora Diamant in the seaside resort Graal-Müritz on the Baltic Sea coast, where he is convalescing and she is working in a Jewish Volksheim. He is a man of world, the 14 years younger woman is from the deep East, he can write, she can dance. She has both feet firmly on the ground, he is always hovering a little above it. She embraces the indicative, he gets tangled up in the conjunctive. But the worldly wise Dora accepts him as he is. And he accepts her. Together they go to Berlin and when Franz's health deteriorates rapidly, to a sanatorium in Austria. They are granted a single year together until Franz Kafka's health deteriorates incurable. However their year together allows them to feel the glory of life.