They are on their way to Timmendorfer Strand: Amata Haller and her boss Heinz Brockhaus, who has offered to take her there by car. Amata is in a hurry, her mother is waiting, as she does every year on May 3rd. This day marks the anniversary of the sinking of the Cap Arcona, the catastrophe towards the end of the Second World War that her grandfather only just survived. The heat presses down on the crowded streets, the journey gets longer and longer, Brockhaus talks incessantly and Amata loses her temper. By the end of the day, Brockhaus will no longer be alive, and months later Amata will stand trial.