Refernces to the “working poor” appear in the media with increasing frequency, usually accompanied by figures to prove someone’s point and much finger pointing. But what kinds of hard-luck stories hide behind these statistics? With a series of portraits the TV-documentary "working poor" sheds light on the hidden poverty of the “precariously employed” in Switzerland. Many of us may not know anyone in that situation but there are plenty of people who don’t have enough to live on even though they work full time.

Christian Aellig (37), a successful lawyer in Bern, returns to his native “Oeschenen” for the funeral of his mother. He finds the small village in a state of intense agitation because rumor has it that his mother - a long time patient with an incurable disease - was killed by her husband, Peter Aellig (63). After a difficult reunion with his father, with whom he had broken by leaving "Oeschenen" at the age of twenty, Christian agrees to defend the old man in court. The village people regard Christian, the man from the city, with suspicion.

At the center of this black comedy is Ruth, who runs the post office in a small Swiss village. Ruth is actually quite content with her life and her position in the village, as long as she ignores what happened to her ten years earlier, when Karolin, her «best friend», cruelly stole and married Raphael, the love of Ruth’s life. After Raphael’s untimely death, widow Karolin moves back to the village where she shamelessly exploits the old friendship by extracting all kinds of favors from Ruth. Hoping to find a new man, Karolin soon places an ad in the paper.