One night, two thousand years ago, in a mountain village known as Nazareth. A carpenter's wife sits by the deathbed of her aged husband, and watches as her life drifts through her mind's eye, her turbulent and moving destiny, so closely intertwined with the mysterious destiny of her firstborn son. A son who, with the dawn, will no longer be under her protection. This new perspective on an exceptional moment in the history of mankind, retold with great sincerity, full at once of humour, love and wisdom, restores a sense of the original humanity of the members of the holy family.

Jon Ewermann has reason to be pleased with his life: the German and Latin teacher is extremely popular among his students at a high school in Hamburg and he is respected and admired by his colleagues. The staleness of his marriage to Charlotte after more than twenty years is made up for by his numerous affairs. But then – on his birthday, of all days – Julie, a new colleague, arrives at the school. Julie is young, beautiful and mysterious. For the first time in his life, Jon understands the true meaning of love. When he realizes that his passion for Julie is reciprocated, he becomes determined to leave his old life behind him, and will stop at nothing in his struggle for a future with her.