 Phöbe Panizzi, an attractive woman in her late twenties, has more or less learned to manage her life as an illiterate right in the middle of a large city in Germany. She has arranged herself with the price she has to pay for her secret: leading her life as a loner, eagerly trying to avoid any kind of near contact to the persons around her, getting fed up with jobs for losers far below of her real potential, not even having a chance to get a driving license. And lies, lies, lies, the whole day through, just to protect her secret. One day she meets Jul, a boy about ten years younger than herself, who carries his own bag of problems around with him. Jul likes her, attracted by Phöbe s strength and her cool attitude, and he soon realizes that they have something in common - their problem of fitting themselves into the framework of social expectations. While Jul openly shows himself as a sensitive character looking for someone he could talk to, Phöbe rudely blocks his gentle advances, just the way she is used to do. Soon trouble starts. Phöbe meets Jul s young father, they like each other, Jul catches them while they are together at Phöbe s home, and Jul cracks up. Things escalate when Jul s father leaves a note for Phöbe about what she should do, but Phöbe fails deciphering the lines and calls for the police - exactly what she was told not to do. It takes some time before there is a silver lining on the horizon.