In 1980s East Germany, Barbara is a Berlin doctor banished to a country medical clinic for applying for an exit visa. Deeply unhappy with her reassignment and fearful of her co-workers as possible Stasi informants, Barbara stays aloof, especially from the good natured clinic head, Andre.
Claire returns to her parental home as an adult. She has been in a wheelchair since childhood, having lost a foot in an accident at the age of six. She blamed her sister Rita for the accident, who has hated her ever since. When Rita learns that Claire has only come back to beg their mother for money for an operation, her anger escalates into pure hatred for her sister.
