Katie Fforde: Martha dances

When Martha’s daughter is bullied at school, the family’s new happiness is at stake. Physician Dr. Martha Nichols, together with a guidance counselor, finds out that her daughter is being bullied at school. The girl’s problems are more closely intertwined with her own life, her new happiness alongside colleague Frank, than she thinks.

Doctor Martha Nichols (Susanna Simon) is called to a special assignment: A young girl is standing on the parapet of a mighty New England bridge, threatening to jump off. Normally, Martha would keep a cool head in this situation – but not this time. Just a few minutes ago, she received a call from her daughter’s school that her 15-year-old daughter, Paula, is not in school “yet again.” Martha starts to feel anxious. Could her daughter be the girl on the bridge? Unfortunately, her fear is confirmed at the scene. After a difficult conversation, she manages to get to her daughter and finally holds her safely in her arms.
But this is far from the end of Martha’s nightmare. Back home, she has to face the question of what drove Paula to this desperate act – and whether she should blame herself for what happened in the last few hours. Has she cared enough for Paula in the two years since she was “cursed” out of New York, made enough time for her in addition to her work at the hospital?
With the support of guidance counselor Ted Sutter (Christian Erdmann), Martha finally finds evidence that her daughter may have been a victim of bullying at her own school. Everything seems to speak for it. But then Martha has to realize that her daughter’s problems are more closely entangled with her own life, her own happiness, than she could have guessed. Because 16-year-old Emma, daughter of her colleague and life partner Frank (Harald Schrott), has, in her opinion, a say in the new family planning. In order not to have to share her father, Emma has resorted to unfair means – not suspecting that her plan would get out of hand so quickly. Martha is now forced to intervene. But unfortunately she falls on deaf ears with Frank, of all people, the man with whom she wanted to pull together in matters of family in the future. He protects his own daughter and leaves Martha and Paula in the lurch. Will the doctor have to say goodbye to her desire for a family for the second time in her life and start all over again with her daughter?

Feelgood movies from the East Coast of the USA: Substantive themes told in an entertaining way, interesting modern characters, moving stories that show urban life in the big city as well as rural places of longing on the coast: that’s what makes “Katie Fforde” as a series. “Katie Fforde: Martha dances” is the 17th film in the Sunday movie series, which has been running successfully on ZDF since 2010.