AllMovie

The setting of a rundown, poverty-stricken farm in Lower Bavaria opens the story of Anni (Elisabeth Stepanek), who toils in near slavery day and night just to keep the farm going, supporting herself and her crotchety stepfather. She is 18, and at an age where she wants to leave and see what the world is like beyond her narrow existence, even knowing how much her stepfather depends on her. One day, Vitus (Peter Turrini), a truck driver barely more worldly wise than Anni, happens along and the two young people fall in love - much against the wishes of the stepfather. Soon both decide to get married, and Anni leaves the farm for a new life. Her eyes are opened by a world that allows her to develop into a normal and healthy womanhood, confident and willing to work to earn a living. She finds a job in a sausage factory and contemplates the possibility of having children - and more work and responsibility as a consequence. On a trip back to the farm, she finds that her old stepfather is deteriorating mentally, but brightens up when he feels he has disappointed his heirs by staying alive. Anni has much to consider as the process of growing into full adulthood continues.