Spring 1991, a small town in Saxony: Johann works for the Treuhandanstalt and is tasked with deciding the fate of the traditional paper factory in Mielitzsch. His superior wants to push through a sale to a shady investor. However, Johann sides with the plant manager Peter Goyatz, who is fighting to save the factory. A closure would hit the town hard.

The young teacher Julia is already experiencing the consequences of the change in her daily life: unemployment, fear, and growing xenophobia poison the community in Mielitzsch. When she meets Johann, they both enter into a passionate affair - and a conflict between personal happiness and moral guilt.

"Cellulose" tells the story of a time of radical change, where old certainties are shattered and new promises fade away. It is a poetic novel about a German-German love - and a portrait of a deeply shaken generation.