Successful at work, happy in love. This or something similar sounds like the dream of many – Ralph Friesner (Axel Prahl) was able to live it as a successful print editor with his wife Laila Knesselbeck (Inka Friedrich). But that time was years ago – Ralph, now unemployed, divorced and in debt, is turning 50. To make matters worse, he is also a lodger with his former trainee Roman (Max Hegewald) and his grandmother Karin (Katharina Thalbach).

Ralph has to change his life, at least that’s what the job center thinks. They order Ralph to start as a teacher at an evening school. That wouldn’t be a problem, after all, he had studied to be a teacher a long time ago. However, his new job presents Ralph with a major challenge: unlike himself, his pupils really want to learn something and he is now responsible for making sure they do. He is controlled by the strict principal Dörte Wiedebusch(Aglaia Szyszkowitz), who could make his life a living hell.

His class turns out to be a colorful bunch: an overtired young mother ( Jennifer Ulrich) who is constantly falling asleep, a 65-year-old illiterate(Vedat Erincin), a cell phone addict(Mercedes Müller), a highly motivated boy with Down syndrome (Nico Randel), a petty criminal teenager(Dennis Mojen) with a zero-buck attitude and an intelligent Haitian(Tony Harrisson Mpoudja) who drives Ralph crazy with his voodoo magic. Other roles are played by Omar El-Saeidi, Susi Banzhaf, Simon Schwarz, Robert Schupp and others.