This TV movie focuses on an average East German citizen, who accidentally becomes a Cold War victim. Shortly before his wedding day, East German Stephan Busemann goes to West Germany to attend his brother Hubert's fiftieth birthday. At the same time, his son Martin and his daughter-in-law Bettina flee their communist home country in a balloon, what Stephan didn't know. As the East Germans believe he helped them to escape, he isn't allowed to return, so Martin writes a letter to the country's leader Erich Honecker.