Eberswalde, dying industrial city of forty thousand souls just 50 miles East Berlin. Johanna lives in that hopeless place. She lives refusing herself the dreams of following in the footsteps of her father, a boxer. Her irascible character makes her lose job after job and training in the gym where women are nothing but a nuisance. She perseveres supported by the love of a wonderful boy and the intelligence of a woman who knows that beautiful women are not necessarily stupid.