1945. The heavy cloud hanging over the city of Donaublau, where the pregnant Berta awaits the return of her fiancé Rudolf from the front, threatens to crush the heroes in this grim post-war landscape.

The first blow comes to Berta when instead of her fiancé, the door is knocked by his friend Wilhelm, who informs her of Rudolf's death. Berta marries Wilhelm the chauffeur and has another child with him, which awakens the jealousy of her friend Wilhelmine, who reminds her at every opportunity of her inadequacies.

Life increasingly seems to Berta like a bad dream, against which her defenses are dwindling. The weight of the circumstances falls mercilessly upon her, just as it does on all the human wreckage left behind by the war.

Until Berta can no longer bear the weight and desperately seeks redemption in the only act she believes will save her from the "wound that is called life."