Overview

A small provincial town in East Germany in 1999 shortly before the millennium change. The people have already gone through many upheavals, and more are on the horizon. Gudrun is celebrating her 60th birthday today, in an old, dilapidated mansion that was used as a children's home in GDR times, where she herself also grew up without parents. A difficult story between melancholy and nostalgia. Gudrun's daughter Lara also arrives from Berlin for the birthday party. She grew up with her stepfather, her mother never wanted to talk about her biological father, and the relationship between mother and daughter is correspondingly strained. During the celebration, of all things, Gudrun learns that the former children's home is to be sold to financially strong investors who want to turn it into a hotel: An economic perspective for the structurally poor region or selling out its own history? Opinions in the village are divided on this question. While Gudrun does everything she can over the next few days to preserve the children's home as a community and meeting center for all residents, her daughter Lara sets out to find her father and an explanation for her mother's unyielding harshness.