The hour of true feeling. In the forest, in a large old house on a hill, the writer Marcus Kolpa sought refuge from the world a long time ago. But when he receives the news of his mother's death, all the questions he tried to escape with his hermit life come rushing back. He must admit to himself that he has kept his feelings at bay for too long and has vainly tried to suppress the past. The world as a hopeless place - Marcus Kolpa never wants to and cannot accept this. Instead, he writes against it, discusses it with his friends, and over time, he becomes a brilliant cynic. When he and his wife Chaja have a daughter together in the early eighties, he is briefly happy. Then Chaja disappears without a trace, and while raising Rebecca alone, Marcus writes a book that...