Johann Lender’s job turns out to be his undoing: the 35-year-old air-traffic controller was alone on his shift on July 1, 2002, when a Russian passenger airliner collided with a cargo plane in the airspace under his control and crashed near Überlingen on Lake Constance. All 71 passengers were killed. Yuri Balkayev’s wife and two children were also among the casualties. About one year later, Balkayev stabs the air-traffic controller to death in front of his own family. But hope is still alive in little Kolya, an orphan who also lost his mother, a Russian stewardess, in this tragedy.