Growing up on the premises of a major psychiatric clinic is… different. For Joachim, clinic director Meyerhoff’s youngest son, the inmates are almost part of his family. They’re much nicer to him than his older brothers, after all, who drive him up the wall. His mother paints watercolors and longs for balmy Roman evenings rather than dreary German rain, while his father goes his own way, secretly, but not secretly enough.
As he grows up, Joachim finds his first great love among his father’s patients, loses a brother, moves to the USA and finally returns to his extraordinary family. Based on the autobiographical novel by Joachim Meyerhoff, this incredibly funny and moving film deals with how hard it is to be a family.