Journalist Sophie Bergmann is working on a legacy study on the effects of Hartz IV on society. She is increasingly reluctant to report on the symptoms of the labor market reform in isolation from its causes. At an EU conference in Brussels, she witnesses the German finance minister being put under pressure by a stranger. When she accidentally sees the same man getting into the car of the editor-in-chief of her newspaper, Sophie is irritated. With the help of Matti, the IT specialist from the editorial office, she begins to investigate.

After her son moves out, single mother Katrin Busche finally wants a partner again - and unsuspectingly plunges another woman into a marital crisis.