City people set off into a warm late summer night. Glances meet in a library. At a workout, two men discuss where to buy love. A couple kisses intimately. She bites him. No sooner has he bought a match than a better offer calls. Doubts arise. A couple explains themselves in therapy. At breakfast, his match chews her egg so loud that he freezes in disgust. The electrifying looks in the library lose their power. Full of hope they wander into the unknown. Only the dance makes them temporarily forget who they are and what will happen.

The personal journey of young Sita is not only an expedition into her family's burdened past during World War 2. It is also a journey to the abyss of modern European society, a trip which takes her from Berlin to Romania via Vienna and Warsaw - about losing one's homeland and discovering oneself, about hope and responsibility.

It's no surprise when Karo is fired. She is loud, over-emotional and egocentric, more so than the average Berliner wise-ass, says her best friend Anna. Karo is not one to give up easily, though: she opts for radical change and goes into therapy. Although her therapist advises her to keep calm, Karo throws herself into it.

Bertha Kinsky works as a governess in the Suttner household and has an affair with Arthur Suttner, the son of the house, who is a few years younger than her. When the affair is discovered, she is forced to leave the house and gets a job with Alfred Nobel. Nobel has become very rich thanks to the invention of dynamite. The somewhat reclusive Nobel and the prudent Bertha quickly take a liking to each other. But one day, Arthur Suttner appears on the doorstep, having broken with his family in order to marry Bertha. Bertha marries him and life drives the penniless couple to Russia, where they are confronted with the horrors of war. This experience turned Bertha von Suttner into a successful author on pacifism. She continued to cultivate a close friendship with Alfred Nobel. Nobel detested the war, but gradually realized that he could go down in the history books as a "warmonger" thanks to the invention of dynamite.