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A sunny day in 2002 near the city of Adana, in the south of Turkey. Esma, 18, is about to be married - to an older man, against her will. Esma was born in Germany and grew up in the Black Forest. She was only twelve years old when her mother lured her under false pretences to Turkey and had her detained for four years in a Koran school. The documentary tells the story of a young woman whose life is threatened by the conflict between tradition and freedom. It is an exemplary story, and in this case it has a happy end. With the help of her older sister Hülya, Esma manages to make a dramatic escape. The film describes an aspect of life in present-day Germany: many migrant families are torn apart by the conflict between archaic tradition and the freedom of modern times, and many German-Turkish women pay with their lives for their wish for self-determination. Esma and Hülya were lucky: in their case it was only their mother who wanted to impose the law of the Koran, the Koran as she understands it. Their father, divorced from his wife since the 1990s, has a more liberal attitude to religion and to life. Nevertheless - for Esma and Hülya nothing is as it was. They have lost their family forever.