Eva (Anna Maria Mühe) and Jo (Max von Thun) have nothing but each other and heroin in their lives. They have broken off all contact with friends and family, including Eva’s father (Hanns Zischler) and her good-natured, former lover and next-door neighbour Tom (Johannes Allmayer). When Eva finds out that she is pregnant, she and Jo decide that their life has to change. They go cold turkey and, as far away as possible from the provincial limitations and picturesque, bourgeois town of Bamberg, the lovers plan a fresh start in New Zealand.

But their attempts to get their hands on enough cash for the journey fail. Eva’s father, a disciplined choirmaster, shows her the door when he catches her trying to write out a cheque for herself in his name. Eva begs her friend Tom to help them, but he also refuses. And so, Jo and Eva come up with a desperate plan to rob an antique bookshop in town. But the plan fails and all in a sudden the events turn up…