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The 23-year-old archaeology student Hanna Schreier and her husband Georg are anticipating the arrival of their first child. Georg's father, surprisingly, turns out to be opposed to his daughter-in-law's pregnancy. He is afraid that Hanna's baby might prove to suffer from an inherited disease, and urges that it should be aborted. Hanna is horrified when she finds out that her father-in-law has been lying: there is no history of an inherited disease in Georg's family. But when the baby is found to have a small genetic abnormality, even her husband thinks it would be better to terminate the pregnancy.
Hanna feels herself to be increasingly alone. She wonders whether she should have this child, in spite of everything. Her mother, Kerstin, once a successful Eastern German athlete, was also in her day urged to consent to an abortion: because of the drugs she had taken to enhance performance, it was thought that her child would be genetically impaired. But Kerstin went on to give birth to a healthy daughter.
Hanna is determined to go ahead and have this child. But everyone seems to be against her.
In desperation she turns to her alcoholic father Wolfgang, whom she has not seen since she was a child. The desperate situation of his daughter helps him to find a new purpose in life. The former East German sports trainer starts to investigate, and gets in touch with his colleagues from the past. These functionaries of the sporting world, however, have in the meantime embarked on successful careers in pharmaceuticals: they see their interests as being threatened by Hanna's baby, and will stop at nothing to prevent their ambitions being brought to the light of day...
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Remark