In 1981, all of Germany fears for the life of Johannes Erlemann, the eleven-year-old son of entrepreneur Jochem Erlemann, who was in custody on suspicion of fraud at the time of his son's abduction. The boy was snatched off his bicycle by his kidnappers, put into a van and then spend two terrible weeks in a shed in the forest fighting for his life having been chained to a wall and left without daylight, while the kidnappers try to extort a large ransom from his wealthy parents.

Alex returns to his unloved home of Stresund, a dying village on the coast. There he takes on an almost impossible task. He wants to find partners for the local hard-to-place bachelors. To do this, he first has to teach the men how to flirt. However, Sebastian's behavior is not exactly selfless. Sebastian's childhood sweetheart Marie still lives in the village.