A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.
12-year-old Anne can't believe her eyes when her uncle Cornelius, a marine biologist at a polar station in Antarctica, shows up at her parents' house in Cologne one day with a live penguin in his luggage. Cornelius asks her to look after the little guy temporarily. Excited, Anne names her new friend Amundsen and empties the refrigerator. Where else would a penguin sleep in summer temperatures? However, the joy over the exotic visitor is soon dampened. Three sinister figures, led by the mean Kullmann, are apparently after the penguin.
For a long time, Halfried Seelig forced herself not to make use of her special gift for healing. When she does help a sick man one day, the news spreads quickly. Meanwhile, there is a crisis in the marriage of Halfried's daughter Marion. On her wedding day, Marion leaves her husband, fetches her daughter Laura from boarding school and moves with her to her parents in Tyrol. There she wants to take over her father's surgery after his retirement and finally work as a doctor again. At first she is not accepted by the population, Laura also does not find her way in the new environment, Marion in turn resolutely rejects her mother's methods. It also worries Marion that her daughter appears to have inherited Halfried's abilities......
