The young florist Frieda grows up in a strict Catholic environment during the 1960s. When she steps onto a frozen river one late winter afternoon, she has no idea that everything is about to change for her. On the ice, she meets the married Otto. They experience a love that begins tumultuously and ends fatefully: Frieda becomes pregnant – a scandal in the world she inhabits. Thus, she can never be a mother to her secret child. For decades, she keeps the memories of this episode of her life to herself. Yet the sorrow for the lost child remains, despite her later marriage and the son she eventually has. At the age of eighty-one, Frieda suddenly finds herself alone again. The quiet grief returns with force. Only then does she dare to confront her story – and share it.

In "Contour of a Life," Robben tells the story of many women from a time that is not so far behind us. A special novel that conveys compassion.