Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of an age-gap relationship, which the novel uses partly to interrogate the generational divide in East Germany in the latter half of the 20th century. This section also features depictions of sexual violence, emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, and pregnancy loss.

A man named Hans asks a woman named Katharina if she will attend his funeral. Katharina does not address his question. Hans dies four months later in Berlin while Katharina is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She watches performances of Mozart, Bach, and Chopin on YouTube in his memory.

Katharina returns to Berlin and visits Hans’s grave. Six months later, two large cardboard boxes arrive at the house Katharina lives in with her husband. She avoids inspecting their contents at first, but when she can no longer ignore them, she opens them and discovers memorabilia of her relationship with Hans, dating from 1986 to 1992. This prompts Katharina to retrieve her own suitcase of memorabilia and reflect on their shared past.

In East Berlin, July 1986, Katharina and Hans meet by chance on a bus. Katharina had come from a bookstore and chased after the bus that Hans just happened to board.