"Everyone has dreams, and dreaming is never stupid." So says Paula, a girl whose dreams are as big as her heart. For a long time, Paula has kept a diary, and written inside are her biggest secrets. When her diary is stolen by a pair of child thieves, she is devastated. But Tobi, a fellow classmate, knows where the thieves live, and offers to help Paula in exchange for tutoring lessons to pass his English exam. What starts out as a simple routine soon turns into an adventure, and Paula and Tobi eventually discover that first impressions can sometimes be wrong, and that some things are more irreplaceable than others.

Anam, age 40, is a traditional Turkish wife and mother who lives with her family in a German city. She works as a cleaner and has made two friends: man-crazy German Rita and superstitious African Didi. When she finds out that her 20-year-old son Deniz has drifted into the drug scene and her husband Mehmet is having an affair with a colleague, her whole world collapses around her. Although desperate she is determined to fight and goes looking for Deniz. Instead she finds his girlfriend Mandy, who is also a drug addict. She decides to take care of the girl who is a stranger to her and finds herself confronted with an entirely unknown world. When she finally manages to track Deniz down to the cold-blooded dealer Hassain, he rejects her. Anam is forced to realize that painful as it is she can only help Deniz if he is prepared to accept her help