母亲安娜把自己的女儿英加留在了东德，自己逃往西部。英加在梅克伦堡的一个偏远小镇长大，和祖父母生活在一起，以为自己母亲淹死在波罗的海，祖父母 就是这么告诉她的。直到英加长成年轻姑娘，她才知道事实并非如此，她在怪癖的文学教授的帮助下横跨德国寻找母亲。电影是一部悲情的公路电影，一个关于生活谎言、沉默和遭排挤、关于负罪感的故事。
　　Malchow, East Germany, 1980. Twenty-year-old Anne is hiding Juri (Ilja Pletner), a Red Army deserter. With Juri facing a death sentence the couple flee to the West, leaving Anne’s infant daughter Inga in the care of her grandparents. Twenty-five years later Inga (Anna Maria Mühe) has grown up believing her mother is dead. When approached by Robert (Ulrich Matthes), a literature professor from the former West German town of Konstanz, Inga begins to doubt her past and begins a search for the truth. As her road trip with Robert continues, his hidden motives begin to surface.