Three novellas which have one thing in common: They describe the quest for happiness above the abyss of the finite. In the year of 1948, a young man was murdered near a summer house settlement in Berlin; the culprit was never caught. The brother of the murder victim, by now sixty years older, has all but forgotten him – until one day a man turns up who persistently claims to be the murderer. He says he must atone for his deed and wants the victim's brother to help him in his mission. A historian is fascinated by mystic Hildegard von Bingen, especially her antiphons.When he becomes seriously ill, he must decide where he belongs: in the realm of the past or with his partner, a cardiologist who is used to extending life at all costs. The divorced assistant master with a predilection for his own sex seems as forlorn as the beautiful Mathilde from the Belle Epoque who, unnoticed and walled up, has been left on her pedestal above a car repair shop. His deep yearning revolves around this female figure made of plaster.