The circumstances in her family had taken their toll on Bea and caused her great mistrust in human relationships. Finally in 1974, Bea Kanter fled her family at the first possible moment and began studying economics at Frankfurt University. 1974 Bea  Her mother's death, her father, who was with his affair even at the hour of her death, and her sister's much too early pregnancy. Bea puts all her energy into political work with left-wing groups. During a visit to the GDR, she arouses the interest of the state security. Torn between the desire to belong and a lack of trust, Bea decides to lead an adventurous double life as a spy, makes a career at the Foreign Office and supplies the Stasi with confidential files for years.

But the web of lies in which she is caught increasingly gets to her. She falls into an increasing inner isolation from which there seems to be no way out. Just as Bea is transferred to Lisbon to the German Embassy, where she lives with Jakob Alsmann for the first time, the Wall falls along with her years of cover.