Day after day, the seamstress Jolanda Hansen sits in her studio altering dresses. However, in her order book, alongside sewing projects, there are other things—unspeakable truths about her clients, for example. And questions about Franz, her older brother, who did not return from a swimming trip when he was seventeen. As Jolie prepares a family celebration for her parents' eightieth birthday, she can no longer bear the pervasive silence. What if Franz didn’t drown back then, but simply left? Finally, she embarks on a search, unraveling her neatly hemmed life and discovering many hidden truths.