Matthias is hopelessly overwhelmed when suddenly his mother Gisela is at the door. After a thigh fracture she sits in a wheelchair and needs help. When Matthias learns that Gisela has discharged herself from the rehab clinic, he realizes that she needs new life courage and is desperately looking for a solution. It comes quite unexpectedly from Tom, Gisela's ten-year-old grandson: Grandma needs a worshiper! The unusual plan works. The anonymous love letters, written by Matthias himself, enchant his mother. But when she wants to meet the unknown, all the dizziness threatens to fly up.
Three more years, then she will be 40: Sophie is slowly getting scared. Actually, she should be happy and have everything under control: three growing children, a small catering agency, a large farmhouse and a husband, Hubertus, who is reasonably successful professionally. But somehow life has lost its tension. It will wrinkle like an old apple, worse: like herself.
An invitation to an old childhood friend's 40th birthday throws the Baumgartners' hitherto happy life into disarray and makes them question their previous concept of life. Marie and Markus Baumgartner are a picture-book couple. But everyday working life and two children make it hard for the couple to catch their breath. An invitation to the 40th birthday of Marie's former best friend from school, Heike, including a long weekend, comes at just the right time. Without further ado, the Baumgartners hire Grandpa Walter as a babysitter and travel to Marie's old Bavarian home. The surprise on the spot is huge: Heike has achieved everything the two friends had once dreamed of. The chubby duckling has become a beautiful swan and she is living her dream job as a photographer. She lives in a dream house by the lake with her smart husband Hans.
