Sometime in the near future: Europe is in shambles. Right-wing populists have taken power in many countries. Germany, formerly a democracy, has turned into a totalitarian system in which not just dissidents, the religious and homosexuals are prosecuted. Jan Schneider, lawyer, defends expropriated victims – and has to pay dear for his conviction: when he is once again threatened with arrest and torture, he has no choice but to flee with his wife and two children. Their destination is the stable and prosperous South African Union. A cargo ship is supposed to take them from Hamburg to Cape Town.

But the smugglers abandon them in the border region on the coast between South Africa and Namibia. On rough seas, disaster strikes, little Nick gets lost and no one knows if he’ll make it to the shore alive. In her desperation while searching for Nick, Sarah makes a serious mistake and is registered in Namibia – a third country regarded as secure. Under the most degrading of circumstances, the escape to South Africa continues where the refugees are waiting in camps for asylum proceedings. In this exceptional situation, Nora alienates herself from her parents, and trouble looms between Jan and Sarah. Did he really have to defend the regime’s victims? Should she not better have stayed on in Germany with the children, to join him later? Sarah never told her husband about her registration in Namibia. But the South African authorities are well-connected …