Fred left his working-class neighborhood in the north of Germany in order to take advantage of an opportunity to earn a lot of money in Africa as a truck driver. He believed then that money would solve a lot of the problems he was facing. However, when he comes home to his wife with the money, she sends him away. An old girlfriend wants a settled married life which he is unable to provide. Even his old buddies can't get on with him anymore. His brief experience of larger horizons has changed him too much for them to relate with him easily. Instead of improving his life, it seems that his sojourn in the south has eliminated it entirely, leaving him (metaphorically) holding a bag with only money in it.