Vera, a paranoid recluse and former Stasi agent, hasn’t left her apartment in years. On her 50th birthday, Vera refuses to let her son, Theo, into her apartment to deliver a birthday present. Through their initial phone conversation, we learn that both Vera and Theo suffer from asthma. After a heated argument, Vera hangs up on Theo and disconnects her phone. Believing she is safe, Vera, alongside an extravagantly dressed mannequin, performs an upbeat, tonally-converse dance routine. But her dance is interrupted by a booming knock on her apartment door. Tensions rise as Theo threatens to cut off financial support unless Vera opens the door. But Vera’s fear of the outside world, of her past, is too great. Suddenly, at the conversation’s most volatile point, Theo suffers a violent asthma attack and Vera is forced to make an impossible choice: face her crippling fear or let her son die.
