The film starts out with the wedding of the worker's couple Manfred and Manuela. They enter into marriage in the hope of having a long and happy union. Within a few years Martina gives birth to two children and has to leave her job to become a full time stay-at-home mother. Manfred has increasing problems at his job and his situation changes for the worse. The relationship becomes increasingly toxic. The struggle for emancipation begins when Manuela acquires new typing skills to improve her chances of employment and subsequently starts setting up a new life of her own. Being misunderstood and ignored by Manfred, she sleeps with another man whom she knows from her childhood days. The family crisis has reached its peak. Meanwhile Manfred has undergone changes of his own. At the funeral of Manuela's father the couple starts a process of reconciliation...