Hanna and Leo are expecting a child. They live near Innsbruck where the mountains touch the sky and where absolute bliss seems to reign. But things turn out quite differently: the birth is complicated and Hanna cannot even see her baby. It's supposed to be sick and in an incubator. Hanna is suspicious of the doctors and decides to look for the baby on her own and finds it... but it's not a baby at all but an indescribable living something. Hanna's first impulse is to commit suicide. But then she drastically breaks away from her settled life and leaves Leo. Her search leads her straight through our civilized world up to the North Sea. Increasingly she exposes herself to the 'accidents' as well as possibilities of her life. In Hamburg she boards a ship - the sea fascinates her. Finally, Hanna leans over the ship's bow as far as she can - the water is flowing below her as if the ship's hull wanted to drink the entire dark sea up.