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New York, USA: the headhunter JAY GAINES only places people in senior positions, that is, positions with earnings starting at $600,000 a year. He is like a secret agent between two fronts: the customer (a firm with top-level positions to fill) and the company that will lose some important manpower. At the moment he is under a lot of pressure because his latest assignment is threatening to be a disaster. He is using all of his charm on the telephone to try to procure a ’Mr. or Ms. Perfect’ as fast as possible for his impatient customer.

Meanwhile, while CHAMILA practices in chorus with her class of adult women the new English phrase ’cooking pot’, VOLKER and DIRK are proving their knowledge of construction under the critical eyes of their possible next employer in the courtyard of the job center in Magdeburg.In New York, JAY GAINES is holding a crisis meeting in his company. The members of the meeting are all wondering whether they should just throw in the towel on this assignment.

Now that DIRK and VOLKER have passed their English class and numerous tests, they are waiting to begin their new work in England. However, the starting date is delayed week after week. An unpleasant surprise may await them, and they may find themselves in a completely different situation than they have been expecting...

CHAMILA has been lucky: she gets to report to a new position as a nanny in Nicosia. Her entire family accompanies her to the airport. Leaving her children with their grandmother is especially hard for her.
As she arrives in Cyprus she is received and brought to her new home by her Cypriot agent. She is standing in a huge house, filled with unfamiliar smells, a foreign language and a pack of obstreperous children...

The headhunter JAY GAINES has to put his foot in his mouth again and offers his customer not only an embarassing but also inappropriate proposition. His facade of a cool, successful Wall Street headhunter is beginning to crumble. But he isn’t giving up yet...

Our three protagonists are going through similar phases in the global employment placement process: No matter which side they are on, where they come from, or how much money they have, they are but stocks in the employment stockmarket. And they are discovering something particularly threatening as they speculate or as they are speculated upon: their feelings.