Summer 1986. Berlin-Charlottenburg. A man is standing on a ladder, painting the ceiling of an old apartment into which he plans to move with his partner. Suddenly, he loses his balance and falls to the ground. After that, nothing is as it was. The departure of two people into a shared future could hardly have failed more brutally. The struggle with paralysis and the forced slowing down of everyday life must assert themselves in an environment that is rapidly changing with the fall of the Wall. Iranian oppositionists, newly wealthy Russians, and Roma refugees from the disintegrating Yugoslavia move in. Down on the street, life becomes not only faster but also louder, rougher, and more violent. Then the house empties. In the end, the old couple remains - and the lifelong attempt to hold on.