Nina Kern, a divorced woman in her late twenties, will soon be fully deprived of her custody rights for her three children, who already reside in a home for the displaced  due to Nina’s many years of willful neglect. Although she has broken her promise to change her moral conduct many times, she is given one last chance on probation.

A civil engineer and a teacher take on the responsibility of helping Nina and her 5 year-old daughter Mireille, who is soon to be released from the home. Nina makes a diligent effort to hold down her job as part of a subway cleaning crew and be a good mother to her daughter, but in the end, she comes to believe that she is not mature enough to bear the full burden of raising all of her children.

A touching film based on the novel by Tine Schulze-Gerlach.