Architect Severin Wiesgrund accepts a contract from a late Berlin master-chef's widow, Josephine Gill to build a lake terrace as part of the transformation of a sleepy Mecklenburg-Vorpommern town's bedridden widow Harriet Buchholz's estate into a classy restaurant. Severin proves the ideal substitute father for Josephine's youngest son, timid Gabriel, who is traumatized since losing his daddy. Although she resists, Josephine obviously falls for Severin, who has a crush on her and gets on well with her firstborn Rafael, who comes to present his Berlin boarding-school lover. Harriet's son, contractor Clemens Buchholz, plays dirty to rival Severin for the town's open 'green tourism' development competition, to mayor Hans Zechlin's double horror.