Lilly Schönauer - Umweg ins Glück (2007)

Travel reporter Charly Stein had actually planned to go to Cape Town with her colleague Stefan to report on life in the slums. Instead, she travels to the village of St. Veith in Styria to search for her biological parents. Her editorial office had received an advertisement from the local Ehrenfels Castle, which featured a painting. The woman in the portrait looks like Charly, and since the castle is not far from the hospital where Charly was left as a baby, she suspects a connection to her biological parents. A hand puppet was found with her at the time, and she now takes it with her to St. Veith. On the way there, she meets Andreas Ehrenfels, son of the castle’s owner, Max Thadäus Ehrenfels. Andreas is on the verge of getting engaged to his childhood friend Vera Thul and is initially not at all taken with the rebellious Charly. She claims she wants to make a report about the castle and its residents. She and Andreas grow closer, much to Vera’s annoyance. However, Vera is grateful for the publicity for the castle, so during a visit to Graz she also goes to Charly’s boss to thank him for the planned report. This is how it comes out that Charly lied. Andreas confronts her, and she tells him that she is actually looking for her parents. Andreas wants to help her with the search, and the two take the hand puppet, which depicts a princess, to Gustl the toymaker. He thinks he has seen this kind of puppet before, but cannot remember where. Andreas has told his father, Max, that Charly is looking for her parents. Max had also noticed Charly’s resemblance to the woman in the portrait, and he takes an old letter from a drawer in which the writer tells the recipient that she is expecting a child. The letter is from Ursula Thul, Vera’s mother. Meanwhile, Vera has seen Charly’s puppet and associated it with the ones from her own childhood. She confronts her mother, and Max also goes to Ursula to talk things through. When Max’s wife suspects him of having once been unfaithful, he sets the record straight: it was not he but his best friend Julian who fathered Charly. He had kept the letter as a memento because Julian fled when he learned he was going to be a father, and had a serious car accident in which he died. Charly rushes back to Graz, especially as she is afraid of stealing her half-sister Vera’s future husband. Meanwhile, Vera has realized that her relationship with Andreas existed mainly because of Ursula’s efforts—she wanted her daughter to have the security in a relationship that she herself had never had. Vera breaks up with Andreas, with whom she wants to remain good friends, and goes to Charly to talk things through with her. Charly and Ursula also have a heart-to-heart, and in the end Charly and Andreas reconcile and become a couple.