 1988: The 13-year-old girl Lilly lives with her mother Rita, who escaped from East Germany 15 years ago. But now Rita suffers Cancer, and she will stay alive only a few more days. So her sister Lena, still living in the East, tries to get a visa to visit her sister, she hasn t seen for 15 years. But her reason is not important enough. So she  only allowed to visit the West for just one day after Rita died. On the funeral, Lena and Lilly meet for the first time. Lena suddenly realizes, that there is no one left to care about Lilly, because her dad died shortly after her birth and the rest of the family lives in the East. Temporary Lilly lives in a boarding school now. After the day they spend together, Lena has to take the train back into the East, or she would be arrested. Before the train leaves the next day, Lilly escapes from school and implores her aunt to take her with into the East. Lena doesn t know what to do now, because she knows it is impossible to get a child into the East. The train leaves Hamburg, and she has to leave Lilly crying at the railway-station. Shaken up in her feelings, Lena returns to her family in Jena. Angry with herself and angry about the system, because she knows, if she took Lilly with her, she had to go back into prison. After her sister escaped in the West, Lena was already in prison for three years because she helped her. In Hamburg the youth office looks for foster parents for Lilly. Not knowing what to do, Lilly makes a plan to flee # into the East! But this is not as easy as it seems. Together with the friend of her mother she travels to East Berlin, and from there on by train to Jena. In the evening, at her cousin Till s birthday, she arrives at Lena flat. After little trouble, she is welcomed very well by Lena, but this is not the end: She is not allowed to stay here and so a danger for the family. So Lena s husband refreshes his contacts into the underground, to find a way to let Lilly stay. And also Kathrin, Lena s daughter makes trouble, because she can t stand Lilly and tries to get rid of Lilly. And then the office for immigration, searching for Lilly, appears...