All of a sudden, 16-year-old Martha vanishes. Her father Lothar, who for years has had no contact with her or his ex-wife, sets off unwilling to find her. He soon realises other young people are also vanishing from the city inexplicably. Lothar follows their trail across the country. He meets the occasional young person but the trail goes cold. In the next city he encounters militia groups and a reinforced police presence. Children are forbidden to be on the streets unless accompanied by adults. The world has changed...
Helen, in her early 50s, really doesn't know which problem she should solve first: her husband seems to be cheating on her, the children are in terrible puberty, things aren't going well with the gardening business, and she herself is going through menopause. When her old mother also has a stroke, the otherwise calm Helen threatens to go crazy.