Fourteen-year-old Billie rarely crosses the boundaries of her high-rise housing estate. By the end of the month their money barely stretches to pasta with ketchup, but her mother, Marika, lights up Billie’s world with her imagination and big heart. One day, however, they receive an unwelcome visit from her Hungarian grandmother, and Billie loses much more than the colourful everyday life she shared with her mother. No longer able to ask Marika any more questions, Billie sets off alone in their old Nissan – she is determined to meet the father she never knew and find out why she keeps dreaming about the sea, even though she’s never been there.

»The beginning was the last day before the summer holidays.
The beginning was a song on the radio.
The beginning was big plans.«
Elena Fischer

Joseph is lonely and struggling with his lot in life, not least because his wife Lis, unable to bear day-to-day life on the farm, has fled to the city with their son. This is far from a daily occurrence in the 1960s in the countryside. Luckily, Ada, Lis’ older sister, is still there — with whom Joseph perhaps always felt more connected. And then 19-year-old Birdie suddenly appears on his doorstep, weak, and fleeing her own predetermined path. Lis, Ada and Birdie — they will turn not only their own lives upside down, but Joseph’s too.