After many years in America working as a boat-builder, Felix Jung returns to the village where he was born, on the banks of Lake Constance. His only relative still alive is an old aunt who has been running a small boat rental yard for the last 40 years, just about managing to keep her head above water since her husband died. Felix left Lake Constance 10 years ago to seek his fortune abroad and to a certain extent he achieved success in both in his professional and in his personal life: he became engaged to the daughter of his boss of an east coast firm and was  practically monopolized  his new  family. In order to get away from his ever more complex relationship he courageously decides to return to Germany.  Late one afternoon travelling across the lake on the ferry he runs into his old teacher Kuckuck, who owns the property next door to his aunt’s house. Kuckuck, who hardly recognizes Felix, tells him that his aunt is in the hospital suffering from minor circulatory failure - and that in fact, Felix has arrived just in time.