Was wenn der Tod uns scheidet? (2008)

Nele Wolff is a nurse at the municipal hospital and is deeply troubled by being unable to save a child during emergency surgery, resulting in the child’s death. It reminds her too much of the death of her own son, who drowned four years ago. Her marriage is suffering too, and her husband Paul, who works with her at the same hospital, has taken up with a fun-loving girlfriend. She is married as well and enjoys the affair. Sophie Hellwig, a mother of three boys who is always under pressure, is married to Joachim Hellwig. But the busy journalist is always on the road and rarely at home. So she has become involved with Dr. Paul Wolff. Just as the two of them meet in a hotel room, Joachim returns unexpectedly from Moscow. With Sophie away, he is left alone with his three children and clashes with his eldest son, Anton, who accuses him of never being there for his sons. Hanns Dunkel works as a nursing aide at the municipal hospital and still lives with his mother, Marie. The elderly woman has dementia, and her son is considering putting her in a nursing home. He is friends with his colleague, nurse Birte Gold, but has never yet confessed his feelings for her. After his mother wanders off while unsupervised, he makes up his mind that things cannot go on this way. First, though, he has to find her. Sophie Hellwig unexpectedly collapses after her latest night of lovemaking and has to be taken to the municipal hospital. Nele Wolff immediately realizes that her husband, who brought the patient to the hospital, spent the night with her. An examination reveals that Sophie has a brain tumor. As Paul embraces her to comfort her, Joachim Hellwig comes through the door. The two men confront each other and get into a fight. They stop only when Paul’s wife arrives. Nele talks things through with her husband, who makes it clear that he needs a woman he can talk to. In the midst of her grief, she also has to think about him and remember that life goes on. During the night, Marie Dunkel had gone to the cemetery to her husband’s grave and was about to hang herself. Hearing a suspicious noise nearby, she goes to investigate and finds an unconscious man. He appears to have tried to poison himself with pills and alcohol. Marie makes sure he is taken to the municipal hospital and accompanies him. When she arrives, she meets nurse Birte Gold, who recognizes Marie immediately and calls Hanns Dunkel so he can stop searching for his mother. Marie casually claims that she was needed and that the patient is her friend. When no one is watching, she leaves the hospital with the man, pushing him in a wheelchair. Sophie and Joachim Hellwig find their way back to each other through her serious illness. Nele and Paul Wolff separate for an indefinite period, during which Nele intends to try to come to terms with her grief. Marie Dunkel moves in with the would-be suicide, and Hanns Dunkel finally moves in with Birte Gold.