Johannes, a new assistant at the university, is asked to provide reports on an Algerian colleague - who is suspected of being a sleeper. He refuses, but the seed of doubt has been planted. A fragile friendship which is overshadowed by professional and emotional competition eventually leads to betrayal.
A police psychologist saves a young woman from jumping to her death and takes the unstable stranger into her family. She soon becomes jealous of her benefactor's happy marriage and tries to seduce her husband. When the rescuer surprises them both in an apparently explicit situation, she and her friend leave the home in a hurry. She suffers a car accident in which her friend dies and she herself falls into a coma. A time of hope and waiting begins for the man.
