37-year-old Michael Grothe is a German teacher at a secondary school in Berlin. Not an easy job. But Grothe loves his job, he is a committed teacher - too committed, because his private life is suffering as a result. His marriage has broken down, and his budding relationship with his colleague Lisa Kranz hardly stands a chance against the ion with which Grothe is a teacher. His class is the most important thing to him. The difficult Nico is particularly close to Grothe's heart. He doesn't want to give up on him and tries to encourage him. In doing so, he gets too involved with him and oversteps both Nico's and his own boundaries. He not only loses with the other pupils in his class, but also with his own life.