Synopsis

After 22 years in prison, the one-time terrorist Widmer has been released. Widmer was a leading member of the “second generation of the RAF [Red Army Fraction, in its early phase a.k.a. the Baader-Meinhof Gang].” During a kidnapping that backfired badly, his commando killed von Seichfeld, a bank director – as well as one of Seichfeld’s employees. To this very day it has never been determined with absolute certainty who fired the deadly shots then. All the other participants in the commando are dead save Marita, who was Widmer’s lover in those past days. As state witness, Marita has testified against Widmer and thus secured her own pardon.

Widmer’s attorney Ellen has furnished him with a place in an anonymous apartment complex in Freiburg. Widmer would like to reintegrate himself in everyday life of a world he has not gotten used to yet. The first thing he would like is to take care of some “simple matters” – but above all, he wants to make contact with his son Samy, who is a grownup by now. All those years Widmer wrote him letters every month from prison. But his letters were delivered to Samy’s mother Marita, and Samy never got any of them.

Widmer’s neighbor in the next apartment is a young woman called Valerie. She also is a client of lawyer Ellen. After Valerie hadbeaten and injured her eight-year-old son, he was put under public custody and lives with foster parents now. Widmer isn’t aware that Valerie is the daughter of the gardener who had been shot dead in the assault. He senses her tension but has no way of knowing Valerie is searching for her father’s murderer. Valerie is driven by a wish for revenge.

When things turn nasty at a garden party at the apartment block, Widmer and Valerie leave by car that same morning. They want to go visit Samy, Widmer’s son. On the ride to Berlin, Valerie reveals her identity to Widmer and accuses him of murdering her father.

The disappearance of the two of them does not go unnoticed. Ellen, Widmer’s lawyer, and Decker (“Fisch”), the ex investigator who had been in charge of the manhunt pursuing him, run into each other in the building where Valerie and Widmer are being missed at this point. Ellen and Fisch had met at Widmer’s trial and briefly been a couple then. Now each has something to conceal from the other. Ellen hides the fact she had slipped Marita’s Berlin address to Widmer. Decker on his part knows better than to reveal to Ellen he had carried on an intimate affair with Valerie.

On their way to Berlin, Widmer denies he had anything to do with the death of Valerie’s father. Instead he claims Marita, Samy’s mother and, like himself, a member of the commando, was the gardener’s murderer. Is he lying or telling the truth? Valerie takes Marita by surprise in Marita’s Berlin apartment, holding a gun. Yet, vehemently protesting, Marita denies the crime as well. The choice is Valerie’s to make.