Andrea Lüdke

Toftlund-Holst, the tranquil place on the Baltic Sea, just before Christmas: everything could be so contemplative, but the mood in the Torkelsen house is cloudy. The lease of the restaurant "Four Mermaids" expires and the new owner Nick Winter does not want to extend it ...

When a girl on a medieval farm says she dances with the devil, her stepmother must find out the real reason before it's too late.

"As a child, I always wished I had a fairy-tale uncle for a grandpa," says high school graduate Elyas, "but the truth is: my grandpa is a drunken old codger." Misanthrope Horst has been living with his buddy Johann on a lake in Sauerland for decades. He has no contact with his daughter Lisa or his "half-Turkish" grandson. On his 66th birthday, Lisa takes him to the hospital for a check-up. The result is terrible. Horst and Johann stubbornly steal a hearse, kidnap Elyas and step on the gas...

Katja Winzer lives with her eight-year-old son Tobias and her partner Jürgen in a small town near Bremerhaven. When Tobias does not come home one evening after playing games, and broadcasts remain fruitless throughout the circle of friends, Katja turns on the police. For Katja begins a nightmare of waiting, hope and fear, where she threatens to break. Only weeks later, the terrible idea that Tobias could have become a victim of a violent crime, to the certainty.

Christine inherits a sailboat from her father, whom she barely knew. Christine is a divorced single mother and her job at a research insitute leaves her with too much work and too little time to sail. She can't find anyone to buy the boat at full value, so she tries to repair it over the winter in the hopes of being able to get a better price in the spring. Working on the boat become something of an obsession to the detriment of Christine's relationships with her son, boyfriend and collegues. When the boat is finally ready to sell, she isn't sure that she is willing to part with it after all.

Seventeen-year-old apprentice Jonas, struggling with his ailing, proud father, pours himself into restoring a decaying ship on a Mecklenburg lake. Neglecting all else, he loses his girlfriend and support at work. After the boat burns, a reconciliatory vocational ceremony reunites him with his recovered father.