New Heights follows business consultant Michi Wyss as he tries to revive his family farm after the suicide of his father. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Michi Wyss (Julian Koechlin) is a successful business consultant in the city. His family, consisting of his father, mother, and brother, run a farm named Neumatt back in the town.
Michi’s brother Lorenz (Jérôme Humm) is a hard-working farm boy who doesn’t care much for his studies. Although, the farm’s dilapidated and the debt is rising.
One night, Lorenz wakes up due to the wailing of the cattle. He opens the door of the barn and his face goes pale.
The next morning, Michi’s mother, Katharina (Rachel Braunshweig), discovers about her husband’s suicide. Katharina asks Lorenz to keep the suicide a secret and cover it up as an accident.
Michi, who had a great night with his new friend Joel (Benito Bause), receives a call from his mother informing him about his father’s demise.
Michi rushes to the farm. Katharina tells him that it was an accident. Michi calls Sarah (Sophie Hutter), his sister, to inform her of the tragedy.
Amidst the funeral preparations, Martin Halter (Roeland Wiesnekker), Katharina’s secret lover and his wife, Ursula visit them. Ursula places an offer to buy the farm for a distribution centre.
Meanwhile, Michi leaves for Zurich with the promise of returning soon as Lorenz struggles to make peace with his father’s death.
At the family dinner, Sarah requests her mother to consider Ursula’s offer but Katharina insists that the family will manage the farm together no matter what, upsetting Sarah who wants to return to her own life.
The next day, Michi returns to discover the farm’s burgeoning debt. He also has a tough time handling a project for a large dairy company called Berno at his workplace. Sarah’s strained relationship with her daughter is also revealed.
The funeral takes place. Later, Katharina decides that she cannot meet Martin anymore.
Sarah finds out that Ursula has an offer of 3 million dollars for the farm.
During the funeral, Lorenz reveals the reality of his father’s death to Sarah, who gets furious and slaps her mother confronting her about the truth.
Later, Michi consoles her mother. Sarah and Michi try to convince Katharina to accept Ursula’s offer but a letter from his father convinces Michi to help Lorenz with reviving the farm.
He decides to revive the farm but faces stiff opposition from Sarah.
In the office, Michi also gets in a contest with his colleague Pablo (Roland Bonjour) for a big promotion. He convinces Joel to contact his father in the government for help with the project.
Michi assists Lorenz with developing newer farming techniques. Sarah takes Ursula’s help to jeopardise Michi’s plans to receive credit from the bank, making Michi invest his own money in the farm.
Later, Michi decides to take Joel to meet his family at the farm where Michi tells his mother about his relationship with Joel evoking a harsh response.
At work, things get messy for Michi as the plan didn’t go according to his wishes jeopardising his promotion. In the meantime, Ursula places a deadline of two weeks before Sarah.
Sarah, as part of her plan, heads to the farm and mixes antibiotics in the milk to spoil the revival.
Michi suffers a blackout in his office’s parking lot due to his substance abuse. After gaining consciousness, he returns to his family farm. Katharina has, meanwhile, decided to move on and reunite with Martin.
Michi maps out a strategy to help Berno’s restructuring with the help of the local farmers by reducing the milk price. The phone call is interrupted when Martin comes to inform them about the antibiotics found in the milk, further restricting them from delivering milk for some time.
Michi asks Joel for some money. Sarah, on the other hand, gets closer to Loris, a client from her fitness studio.
Michi asks for help from his former lover, Döme (Nicola Perot), to contest the allegations against the farm. Michi kisses him and Döme, who has a wife, although reluctantly, goes along.
Michi gets the farm ready for the veterinary service inspection and Martin makes necessary arrangements to make the plan a success. The veterinary service allows Neumatt to deliver again.
In the office, Pablo gets credit for Michi’s ideas. Michi punches him in the face and gets fired from his company for the act.
Michi returns to the farm. He accompanies Lorenz to deliver the milk but faces resistance from other farmers who have discovered that he works for the big dairy company Berno which is trying to cut the prices of milk for the company’s benefit.
Lorenz asks Michi to leave for jeopardizing the farm.
Sarah’s daughter Angie comes to know that her mother has been lying to her about her father’s death in an accident.
Katharina takes Martin to a recording studio for a date where she sings in an attempt to relive the days when she wanted to pursue music.
Michi, having nowhere to go, turns to Döme but he also leaves his side.
Michi, in a scuffle with the rest of the farmers at the bar, gets beaten up. Somehow, he manages to pick himself up and reach the farm where Lorenz takes care of him.
The next morning, Angie confronts her mother for lying to her. Angie reveals to the other members of the family that it was Sarah who poisoned the milk.
If you have any doubts about the ending, here’s a complete breakdown.
New Heights (2022) ending explained in detail:
Glimmer of hope
Lorenz, however, somehow manages to convince the other farmers to accept milk from Neumatt.
Michi, thanks to Joel, gets to return to his job with a promotion. Although, he continues to suffer from withdrawal symptoms as he attempts to give up cocaine.
Joel hesitatingly leaves the side of his favourite calf Jessie, who’s sick, to attend the exam that he must pass at any cost to become a farmer.
But he leaves the exam midway to return to the farm and finds that Jessie has passed away.
Sarah’s secret
Sarah tries to make peace with her daughter Angie after revealing the truth to her about her father. She met Angie’s father at a concert after which he took her to his home and raped her.
Katharina tells Lorenz that they will have to sell the farm because without passing the exam Lorenz will not get any credit from the bank to support the farm.
On the other hand, Michi brokers a deal between Berno and the farmers. Lorenz tries to seek help from Michi but Michi turns his back on him as he has decided to go to Hamburg with Joel.
Sarah finds out that Katharina signed a non-disclosure agreement with Sarah’s rapist to give up the case against him. Katharina tries to convince her that it was the only thing her father and she could do to protect her.
The final return
Lorenz vacates the farm and after much hesitation, he signs the waiver to sell the farm.
On the way to the airport, Michi decides that he cannot leave the farm and calls his mother to turn down the deal. He decides against leaving for Hamburg with Joel.
Michi revokes his consent to the deal, spoiling Katharina’s plans to go away with Martin. Angie decides to contact her father.
But in the meantime, Michi’s granny, unaware of the development that the farm is not going to be sold, decides to kill herself.
Just moments after she has taken the pills, Michi arrives at the farm with the cows in hopes of reviving the farm and surprising Lorenz, who’s delighted to have his farm back.
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