Five novellas that play out in the south west of Berlin, and through which the Teltow Canal winds its way like a red thread, with its black crows, secluded villas and impenetrable forests. Above it, the sky is suddenly sealed off by an ash cloud. After his wife's unexpected death, a man gives up everything that connects him to the past. But what can he cling to now? – An established politician suddenly becomes convinced that a crow is sitting on the back seat of his car like a crouching shadow. – A journalist is summoned to cold and damp London for a job and hopes his wife will follow him. But when an Icelandic volcano seals off the skies with its ash cloud, his imagination runs wild. – A man follows mysterious sounds of cello music in the woods and finds a famous cellist, but unfortunately she has already been dead for twenty-five years. – The fifth novella is about a hotel consultant, married and more and more away on business. Why can his wife, who loves him, only keep him with her as a shadow?