Ulrike comes out of jail and goes to live on her own. She doesn't want to meet anyone. People have nothing to offer her. All they will give her, she thinks, is what she deserves: punishment for killing her child. Ulrike is continually looking for evidence for the idea that no one can love her, that her life has to be a trial. But when she meets Sigs, the result is something like love. From time to time she even manages to forget her past and her existence becomes a little lighter. But Sigs' curiosity about what she has to hide increases. He drives her into a corner. She leaves him. If he were to leave her because he found out about her terrible secret, then that would be even more unbearable for Ulrike. Yet they meet again.