Matthias, son of popular rural Lutheran pastor Oskar Brendel and his wife Karin, about to graduate without honors unlike his emigrated big brother, is a pubertal rebel and hopelessly in love with local Maren Grothe. After he picks a fight at the village fair with her flirt and storms off, Maren s found comatose under the watchtower. Missing, Matthias is the only suspect, making the clerical family generally mistrusted. Karin finds her son, whose innocence she believes, apprenticing carpentry on the island where his buddy loves with his father Volkmann. Matthias explains he ran having seen his father Oskar refused ending an affair with Maren, who jumped as suicide attempt. The Brendels consider the due consequences.