Carola and Dieter Martin have been married for 25 years. After Dieter dies in a car accident, Carola finds out that he was gay and had been in a relationship with the much younger lawyer Tobias Volperius for six years. Deeply shaken by this discovery, she withdraws from the outside world and tries to drown her sorrow in alcohol. When she attempts suicide, it is Tobias who finds and saves her. As a result, the two become friends, and Tobias is able to help Carola save her late husband's furniture business, which has been run down by fraudulent proxy Viktor Lipinski and is about to be taken over by another company.