An unusually hot summer. Fourteen year-old Wanda moves with her family from Berlin to Switzerland. Everything will be better here. The move is meant to heal the open wounds of the family. Anna, the mother, has lost her self-confidence due to an affair her husband Joachim had in Berlin. The big house with the overgrown garden and the pretty small town all seems like one big promise. But the new beginning is difficult for everyone. Joachim, 40, throws himself into family activism while Anna, also 40, tries to strengthen the family with new rituals.

Katleen is 17 years old and lives with her brother Torben in their spacious family house. Her mother is a travel writer and is practically never at home. There is no mention of her father ? he left the family years before. Brother and sister live in a close, symbiotic relationship. They close themselves off from the world around, thinking this gives them total security. They communicate with each other in the form of habitual codes and games involving psychological twists, which always turn them back into their bond. Their incestuous relationship is a result of these games rather than the cause. Each is unique and irreplaceable for the other, and both are out of reach to other people. Katleen starts a work study in a carpenter's shop where, after initial reluctance, she gets to know the 25-year-old Hannes who begins to attract her attention with his aggressive charm. Torben, noticing his sister's increasing coolness, tries desperately to prevent the growing distance between them. It becomes clear that a relationship between Katleen and Hannes is developing. At a chance meeting with them both, Torben siezes the opportunity during a meal to provoke a crisis. Katleen tries to avoid a confrontation but after a while can only watch helplessly as the situation escalates out of control. There is a violent argument after which Torben angrily leaves the house. Katleen, now full of anger and disappointment, makes it very clear that she is cutting herself off from her brother, who in turn tries to drown his disappointment in self-destructive behaviour. Katleen, reverting to her sister role, rescues him and they both return to their family home. But their relationship has changed and they have the feeling that it is right to give up their previous close bond, however hard it is for both.