Self-important author Leon joins his best friend on a summer holiday near the Baltic Sea to complete his novel. When they arrive, they find their house is already occupied by a carefree woman who challenges Leon to open up. Meanwhile, forest wildfires rage around them and impending disaster looms.

Katja emigrated from East Berlin to Bavaria. There she has found the love of her life. Now she invites her mother Rita to take a look at her future husband. During her journey from Berlin to Bavaria, Rita picks up the stranded actor Hotte.

In a traffic accident, the funky young radio presenter Christine meets Bruno, a concrete mixer driver thirty years her senior. They are taken with his simple, direct manner and a relationship develops between them that throws Christine's previous life plans out of kilter. But when Bruno buys a little house by the lake where he wants to spend his life with Christine, she gets scared and moves away with her previous boyfriend, a lawyer. Disappointed, Bruno destroys the house by the lake. But when he has finished, Christine is standing there.