She tries to escape from the GDR with her two daughters. They manage to get to Romania, and they want to go to Yugoslavia, but they are caught by the East German secret police (Stasi). The Stasi knew they were going to try to escape because they had put secret microphones in Sara’s flat so that they could hear everything that was said. Sara and the children are brought back to East Berlin. At the airport the children are separated from their mother. They are taken to a children’s home in Dresden. Sara is locked up in a police cell. Her friend Peter, whom she had wanted to marry, turns out to be on the side of the Stasi. He works against her. Sara is sentenced to three years in prison.