Fanny, a self-confident and lonely single shortly before her 30th birthday, is convinced that she is more likely to be hit by an atomic bomb than to find a man for life. In the desolate high-rise building she lives in, she by chance meets the eccentric black bon vivant Orfeo: When they meet, he’s wearing a skeleton costume, he is homosexual and poses as a medicine man and medium. The two become friendly and begin spending time together. Orfeo prophesizes that she will soon meet her prince charming.

Fanny promptly falls in love with Lothar, who matches the prophecies. Although he drives a sleek car, is good-looking and has charm, the romance between Fanny and him doesn’t really take off. When Fanny later learns that Orfeo is terminally ill, she realizes instead that she has found love with him, of all people, and in a completely different way than she would have imagined during her long search. She takes a course in “self-determined dying” which includes building one’s own coffin and concludes with a simulation of one’s own funeral. In the end, instead of simply dying, Orfeo disappears in a rather magical way, Fanny looks to the future with more hope, and Orfeo’s prophecies once again come true.