Full of idealism, Melanie Pröschle, a young Swabian teacher, starts working in her first job at a school in Karlsruhe. Daily school routine soon catches up with her, and apart from her colleague, Thorsten Rehm, who does his best to make her feel welcome, she has little contact with the other staff who on the whole are much older than her. When she gets to know Tina, a neighbor, she finally seems to have more contact with her new surroundings. But her expectations are not fulfilled as quickly as she would hope, and the woods surrounding her become ever more dense. Melanie starts running in the wrong direction.