Tierärztin Dr. Mertens (2003)

Susanne Mertens is happily married to her husband, Klaus. They have a son named Jonas, whom they love more than anything. However, Susanne and Klaus are having marital problems more and more often. While he is very busy with his own company and increasingly neglects his family, Susanne wants to return to her old job as a zoo veterinarian. Susanne also has to realize that her husband is cheating on her with a colleague from work. Without hesitation, she packs her things and moves in with her parents, taking Jonas with her. Her decision to work as a veterinarian again does not prove as easy to carry out as she had hoped. All her applications end in rejection. Thanks to her mother, who personally knows the veterinarian at Leipzig Zoo, she gets a position there as an assistant. Shortly afterward, she befriends the divorced pediatrician Dr. Christoph Lentz, who lives alone with his daughter Rebecca. While he is trying to help her examine a baby animal, Jonas manages to get into the lion enclosure at the zoo unsupervised. For Klaus Mertens, this incident is reason enough to apply for sole custody of Jonas. Susanne blames herself terribly, and Christoph Lentz gives her support. Their relationship grows stronger, and Jonas stays with his mother after Klaus’s girlfriend refuses to look after the child.