Tragedy.
The construction of the Berlin Wall tears the Platz family apart. Maria's plan to help her husband Franz to get to West Berlin fails. She receives a letter telling her that Franz got shot while trying to escape from East Berlin on his own. She'll never love another man.
Nonetheless she really likes her new female work-mate Elfi, a lot, and she most definitely thinks that her son, Alexander, needs a father.
A very special hospital in the Lebanon seems to offer her an unique solution: She will be the father herself. Trouble in the Middle East - she gets lost for nine years.
More tragedy.
Franz didn't die, he just got caught, put into jail for some years, finally makes it to the West, where he gets on the dark side and has to change his name.
Elfi was supposed to take care of Alexander, and she does. She got him a job as a call boy named "Sven".
Maria the Man returns, meets "Sven" in Elfi's apartment, who thinks she's a new client.
Elfi She's shows up with a regular - Franz ("Peter"). Everybody laughs, except for Mary, who is very, very desperate.
But in the kitchen she turns into a woman, again.
It's destiny, stupid!
