Anna Holter

For 11-year-old Kattaka it's an escape: she's looking for her biological father, a Russian sailor whose ship is currently moored in Gdansk and whose existence her parents have kept secret until now. For 70-year-old Lena it's a journey back: back to her home in Masuren, from which she fled in the Second World War. And back to her suppressed pain of having lost both parents. Only together can the mismatched couple regain the ground beneath their feet, and themselves.

Schoolboy Martin, bright but small for his age, has to move and change school because of his mother's new jobs, while only his father really tries to understand him. Even before reaches class he bumps into cocky, athletic rascal Oliver. It seems like Oliver's best friend Silke (a girl) taking to Martin will aggravate their tension, but she actually gets them to spend time together and grow closer. Martin even takes the blame, which neither parent understands, for Oliver smoking in class, a third strike meaning expulsion. Oliver's knavish mischief actually stems from his dad's drinking problem and its root, his ma's infidelity. When he runs away, Martin takes him in.