Margot Schulze lives in East Germany along with her 16-year-old daughter Jeanette and is immensely surprised when her application to leave the country is approved. In fact Jeanette would rather stay in East Germany with her boyfriend, Philipp. But at the same time she doesn’t want to be separated from her mother, who is determined to emigrate to the West after one failed escape attempt which resulted in her spending 18 months in jail here. What are their emotions now, when mother and daughter experience the West for the first time, a land they only know from television and the stories told to Margot by friends from the West years ago? How are they going to come to terms with love, work and school? And will Jeanette simply forget her old boyfriend, Philipp?