A routine check-up reveals that the Pilates trainer Kathrin is suffering from kidney disease and needs a transplant. Her husband Arnold is a successful architect in the middle of a large project and is afraid of donating one of his kidneys. Götz, a friend of the couple's, would undergo the operation immediately if it means saving Kathrin's life - even though this causes problems with his partner Diana. Confronted by issues of life and death, the fragility of the relationships within and between the couples is laid bare. Eventually, the question can no longer be avoided: what is true love?

Professor Karl Michaeli is a former star cellist and grantler , as he is in the book. After the death of his beloved wife Maria in 2014, the retired music professor lives alone in a three-room apartment in Vienna. To his displeasure, several foreign families are housed in his apartment building. The widowed, free-spirited apartment building owner Esther Polgar also houses refugees in his home. These are a special thorn in Karl's side.

In the dark middle ages young unruly Goldmund is sent to a monastery by his father to atone for the sins of his mother, who abandoned them. It is there that he meets Narcissus, a brilliant, scholarly novice, who is introverted and aloof. A unique and deep life-long friendship is born. Narcissus chooses to remain detached from the world in prayer and meditation. Goldmund, who is passionate, sensual and impulsive, runs away from the monastery to live a picaresque wanderer’s life, his amorous and artistic adventures leading him to discover the extremes of both ecstasy and pain. Several thrilling years pass, until one day these friends cross paths again...