In the little town of Herzsprung - whose name harks back to an ancient legend of broken hearts - almost nothing has changed since German unification, except a rise in unemployment. Johanna, a young mother and widow, becomes one of the unemployed and lives on welfare. To make matters worse, she falls in love with a dark-skinned, roving adventurer and the whole village starts talking about it. Director Helke Misselwitz became internationally known for her documentary Winter Adé (1988), about women in the final years of the GDR. Herzsprung was her feature film debut. The lyrics for the song, "Oh, Your First Love," sung by Eva-Maria Hagen, were adapted by singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann, expelled from the GDR in 1976.