The movie follows a lonely German cleaning woman, who enters into an affair with equally lonely, and much, much younger, Moroccan mechanic El Hedi Ben Salem. When they abruptly decide to marry, everyone around them seems appalled.
Emmi, a German woman in her mid-sixties, falls in love with Ali, a Moroccan immigrant worker around twenty-five years younger. They marry, despite the shocked, bigoted reactions of those around them. When the folks calm down a bit, Emmi and Ali’;;s relationship grows uncertain.