The impulsive Caro moves to Kiel in a hurry to make a fresh start. The 29-year-old was terminated after she resisted her former boss's advances. Since then, she has been trying to control her impulsive temper and her anger, which comes up quickly. She wants to forget what happened and reorganize her life. Even when she moves in, neighbor and property manager Manfred is very accommodating and lends her tools. But his pushy friendliness seems all too familiar to Caro. The early retiree has a weakness for pretty young women and is known as a patterer. Caro has taken a direct liking to him and he is convinced that her reserve conceals great affection for him. When Caro comes home one day, an uninvited gift from her new neighbor is lurking behind her apartment door. Following her angry impulse, Caro confronts Manfred the same evening.

On the night of 16 July 1942, ten year old Sarah and her parents are being arrested and transported to the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris where thousands of other jews are being sent to get deported. Sarah however managed to lock her little brother in a closet just before the police entered their apartment. Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist in Paris, gets the assignment to write an article about this raid, a black page in the history of France. She starts digging archives and through Sarah's file discovers a well kept secret about her own in-laws.