A look at the lives of 19th-century composers Clara and Robert Schumann.

As an architect Robert Cortin is self-confident, but his private life is shaky. His wife Vera, a gynecologist, cannot have children. They have tried to get adopt a child for some time. Now Robert learns that his lover Stefanie is pregnant.

The 40-year-old unemployed Anna Leschek and her 13-year-old daughter Ines rob a bank out of desperation. However, they don't get far with their stolen money. In court, the duo is represented by an alcoholic lawyer who wants to get his life together. For Anna Leschek, on the other hand, it's a matter of bare survival. Slowly the two people get closer to each other...

Sisters Maria and Anna live together. Maria is a most proficient executive secretary, encouraging Anna to finish her studies and start a career. Anna broods, threatens to quit university, takes pills, and keeps a diary. When Maria's relationship with Maurice, the son of her boss, starts to lead to love, Anna takes a selfish and drastic step that plummets Maria into solitude. No longer able to connect with Maurice, Maria does establish a relationship with Miriam, a typist at her office who becomes a surrogate younger sister. But Maria is intrusive as well as helpful. Can this or any relationship work out for this talented woman whose past seems to choke her soul?