Some people's lives are tough. Marie is stuck in the wasteland of eastern province, abandoned by her true love Thomas. While he's searching for his luck in the golden west, Marie takes care of her sick mother at home. Enduring silently, she succumbs to the monotony of the assembly line at the ketchup factory. Then Thomas returns. Without any warning. With his child and his new wife Steffi. The same is standing next to Marie at the labeling machine one morning. What chances are there for Marie to stay out of it? High noon in Brandenburg. An angry clash with Steffi seems inevitable, even more so when Marie kisses Thomas. "No, that's not it," she realizes. Thomas is no longer what she needs. Steffi's slap on her face, which follows the next morning, she accepts without objection. Instead, Marie lights a cigarette - and all hostility goes up in smoke. Marie bids farewell to a life that constantly issues blows and gives Steffi and herself a fresh start. "Rauch" draws attention to the brief moments in which people encounter each other beyond given patterns of behavior. In these brief, often comically absurd encounters lies a captivating lightness. A step out of the usual line reveals the really important questions of human interaction.