Synopsis

The young doctor Lisa Scheel would like to break into a male domain as a surgeon. Not only does she want to choose her place in society herself, she also wants to fight for the professional recognition of her father, who wants nothing to do with his illegitimate daughter. It is the famous heart surgeon Prof. Dr. Kohlfeld, where she is aiming for an assistant position. When her plan unfairly fails, Lisa makes a brave decision: she travels to see Dr. Christiaan Barnard to Cape Town to enable him to use knowledge from Kohlfeld's research to perform the first human heart transplant. In the hospital gardener Hamilton, who as a black man is only secretly allowed to do research for Barnard, she recognizes the decisive helper for the technically difficult operation. However, "racial segregation" forbids the brilliant self-taught artist from ever taking his deserved place at Barnard's side. Lisa now seeks a way to break through this barrier of exclusion when a donor heart becomes available to attempt the daring transplant.