Publisher's Synopsis
Michaela grows up near Bremen in a surrounding where domestic violence is daily fare. She is brought up to serve the men in the house. At the age of fifteen she has a young man plonked in front of her and is told this would be her future husband. Only a few months later her first daughter was born. Four more children follow in short intervals. As she hadn't learned it any better, she completely sacrifices herself to her family. She often feels overworked, but ignores each sign of exhaustion. After having taken one of her children to a party, she suffers from a stroke. Although hard-hit she quickly rises up again. Due to intensive talks to a nurse she starts to question her life so far. Hardly released from the hospital, she turns her life inside out. She broke it to children and husband to pitch in the household. This leads to frictions but not to a change of her attitude. During a vacancy in Spain she becomes witness of a phone call which will change her life basically. She understands that her husband is going to leave her. After singing the blues for some time she gets started with much energy and becomes an old people's nurse. Now she earns her first own money and with some delay succeeds in becoming a happy woman near the small town of Rotenburg at the River Wuemme.
