Phöbe Panizzi, an attractive woman in her late twenties, has more or less learned to manage her life as an illiterate right in the middle of a large city in Germany. She has arranged herself with the price she has to pay for her secret: leading her life as a loner, eagerly trying to avoid any kind of near contact to the persons around her, getting fed up with jobs for losers far below of her real potential, not even having a chance to get a driving license. And lies, lies, lies, the whole day through, just to protect her secret. One day she meets Jul, a boy about ten years younger than herself, who carries his own bag of problems around with him. Jul likes her, attracted by Phöbe's strength and her cool attitude, and he soon realizes that they have something in common - their problem of fitting themselves into the framework of social expectations. While Jul openly shows himself as a sensitive character looking for someone he could talk to, Phöbe rudely blocks his gentle advances, just the way she is used to do. Soon trouble starts. Phöbe meets Jul's young father, they like each other, Jul catches them while they are together at Phöbe's home, and Jul cracks up. Things escalate when Jul's father leaves a note for Phöbe about what she should do, but Phöbe fails deciphering the lines and calls for the police - exactly what she was told not to do. It takes some time before there is a silver lining on the horizon.