At the center of this story is Aurora Guerra, a popular actress who became a star in the teen series "The Chosen Ones" at an early age. Irene and Julio, Aurora's parents, signed her up for a casting several years ago and the matriarch, realizing that the decision was between her and another girl, managed to play the casting director in Aurora's favor. Lúcia has the same dream: to be a successful actress and decides to apply for the casting as well, but she soon realizes Irene's scheme and decides to confront her. After a violent argument between the two, Lúcia ends up having an accident that almost took her life and killed her chance of becoming an actress, due to the physical disabilities she was left with. Twenty years later, Lucia is determined to take revenge. The young woman wants to get back what she believes Aurora has taken from her, far from imagining that she is just a victim of Irene's evil deeds.

The film is about the director’s mother, the movie actress Nina Antonova. Now she is 80. She has had hundreds of roles – big and small. It is a personal story about an honest and sad life, about self-sacrifice and freedom. Real fame as an actress came to her only once in her life. It was the leading role in the first Soviet colour TV series Varka’s Land. That was 45 years ago…

1989, the fall of the Berlin wall. Television crews trying, for days on end, to get an emblematic image which would crystallise the event: to no avail. Five years later, Farocki delivers a montage film of this footage, trying to define this ‚absent image'. "Today, 5 years later, this material shows the extent to which the collective conscience was affected by the event, as well as all the efforts made to repress the trauma" declares the filmmaker.