Kennen Sie Ihren Liebhaber? (2012)

Victoria Stellmann is the head of Stellmann Cruises, the cruise line her brother Ansgar also works for. She lives with her husband Kai, a doctor, and their children, Zoë and Henri, in a luxurious villa. She is respected and well liked in professional circles. One day, she travels to the coast for the annual conference of the Nautical Society, where she has been invited to speak. At the hotel, she first bumps into another guest, who turns out to be her neighbor, and later meets investment banker Jacques Oberländer. He is charming and takes her out to dinner. Later, they walk along the beach and go ice-skating together. Victoria is touched by Jacques’s kind attentiveness, but pulls away when he tries to kiss her. She also declines his offer that they use each other’s first names, but accepts his business card. Back home, she says nothing about her new acquaintance. She becomes uneasy when her children talk about a “dog catcher” near the property. At an art opening she attends with her husband, Victoria seemingly runs into Jacques by chance again. He flirts with her and, at the end of the evening, secretly gives her a concert ticket, on which he has written that he likes her. Victoria goes to the concert with him. Later, he walks her home and kisses her. She lets him. A few days later, she drives to her holiday home in Ahrenshoop, where she checks the cruise line’s financial statements. Suddenly, Jacques is at the door. At first she is irritated and alarmed because he seems to follow her everywhere, but in the end she succumbs to his charm. They make love in the house. Shortly afterward, a package arrives at Victoria’s workplace containing a blackmail letter and a USB stick. The stick contains a video showing Victoria making love with Jacques at the holiday villa. The blackmailer soon demands €500,000 in hush money. In desperation, Victoria confides in Jacques, who promises to get in touch with the blackmailers and negotiate with them directly. Because Victoria cannot withdraw the full amount at once, Jacques reacts irritably. Victoria begins to have doubts, especially since he has received her on a yacht but evidently cannot even make coffee in the galley. She has inquiries made about Jacques’s company and discovers that it is a shell company. At the conference venue, she learns that Jacques checked in back then with a certain Mr. Schröder—Victoria’s neighbor at the hotel. When she receives a text from Jacques telling her that the blackmailers have raised their demand to €2 million, Victoria has had enough. She confesses her affair to her husband. Then she goes to the police and reports Jacques. It turns out that he, whose real name is Karl, has swindled several people out of their money before. This particular scam, however, is new. Victoria is unsure whether she really wants to cooperate with the police, since doing so would destroy her good reputation and, with it, that of her company, which uses the image of a solid family as an advertising strategy. She hands over the management of Stellmann Cruises to her brother, who has long wanted a different corporate policy but has always been thwarted by her opposition. One day, Zoë does not come home. Jacques, who has by now gained the children’s trust, has picked her up from school. She returns that evening and is thrilled about her day with Jacques, but Victoria and Kai realize that the staged abduction was a clear warning from Jacques. Kai initially takes the children to stay with his mother and moves out of the family home. Victoria now works closely with the police and agrees to hand over the money. The briefcase is fitted with a tracking device, and numerous police officers keep watch over Victoria during the exchange. Mr. Schröder picks her up and takes her to a remote property. There, Victoria meets Jacques, who is arrested by the police shortly afterward. In the days that follow, the public learns about the case, and Victoria’s affair is discussed in every newspaper. Because the papers also report that Jacques graduated from Harvard, Victoria has the university’s yearbooks brought to her. She now recognizes that Jacques and her brother Ansgar were classmates. Ansgar had set Jacques on her and engineered the scandal so he could take over the management of Stellmann Cruises. At the trial, Victoria testifies against Jacques and stresses how important her family is to her. After the first day of proceedings, she makes her way to her car surrounded by the press. Suddenly, she sees Kai, who attended the trial. He takes her into his car, and she smiles gratefully at him. They drive away together.