After being neglected as a child, Rita gives birth to six children of her own and challenges her mother to act as a parent to her grandchildren. Rita is sent to prison, and upon her release, she takes back her kids. With the aid of Marc—a US soldier—she develops something of a normal family life.

As daughter or mother, friend or sister, Sandra Hüller’s character is on the run from convention in Maria Speth’s second feature. Sharing its itinerant spirit with Agnès Varda’s Vagabond, but colored in shades of Berlin School minimalism, Madonnas disavows feminine ideals with stark realism.