The film is based on real events, telling the story of a three-year-old girl from Austria, who fell into the lake behind her parents' house in 1998, and had been under water for 30 minutes when she was found.

Dr. Markus Höchstmann, a young and ambitious cardiovascular surgeon and ultra marathon runner from Vienna, has landed his first job in a clinic in Klagenfurt, province of Carinthia.

His colleagues have little sympathy for him when he is asked to fill in for the chief of surgery on the weekend of his son's birthday to perform a standard procedure on an important local politician.

This is when an emergency is flown in: a four-year-old[clarification needed] girl has drowned, her body is lifeless and cold, her heart is not beating.

Against the opinions of his more experienced colleagues and against all odds, he decides to fight for the little girl's life and performs a medical miracle.