The old Victor Branzell has a grandson, Alf, who is in love with a clerk in a glove shop, Lilian Lind. But Lilian with her simple background doesn't get accepted in the circles where Alf belongs, and they have now reached the conclusion that they can't have a future together. Marriage is impossible. Victor summons Lilian and Alf and starts telling them his life story.

In the 1980s a middle class German boy falls in love with a travelling circus woman named Carmen, only to have his heart broken when she disappears. Trying to mend his broken heart, Hanspeter set up an amateur circus school in the backyard of his home, which became a refuge for the struggling kids. Nearly 40 years later journalist Yulia Vishnevetskaya crosses Germany in search of this fleeting woman who unknowingly created a powerful impact of a lasting legacy. A road movie with a flair of comedy and drama, this film is a tender reflection on the circus of life, love and the dying trade.