Vivi is exhausted. Actually, she is about to become an attorney and to move in together with her boyfriend Adam, but somehow, she is stuck. She tries to flee back to her Moms couch, only to find that there is no more space for her. Vivi's father assumes that she needs some rest and sends her to an island...
In the little town of Herzsprung - whose name harks back to an ancient legend of broken hearts - almost nothing has changed since German unification, except a rise in unemployment. Johanna, a young mother and widow, becomes one of the unemployed and lives on welfare. To make matters worse, she falls in love with a dark-skinned, roving adventurer and the whole village starts talking about it.
In the 22nd Century, antiquities command huge prices. A woman uses a time machine to travel back the the 19th Century in order to buy paintings from Vincent Van Gogh before he was famous. Will she be wealthy upon her return?
A Jewish ghetto in the east of Europe, 1944. By coincidence, Jakob Heym eavesdrops on a German radio broadcast announcing the Soviet Army is making slow by steady progress towards central Europe. In order to keep his companion in misfortune, Mischa, from risking his life for a few potatoes, he tells him what he heard and announces that he is in possession of a radio - in the ghetto a crime punishable by death. It doesn't take long for word of Jakob's secret to spread - suddenly, there is new hope and something to live for - and so Jakob finds himself in the uncomforting position of having to come up with more and more stories.