Every year, 25,000 to 30,000 ships pass through the Kiel Canal, a nearly 100-kilometer artificial waterway connecting the Baltic and North Seas since 1895. DW Documentary follows the people who keep it running and the ones who love it: two young boat builders both named Paul, sailing an old refitted boat through the canal's locks on their way to the Canary Islands, ship spotters who gather along the banks to watch cargo vessels pass, and Rendsburg parking attendant Rainer Schmidt, whose job includes trimming hedges so the viewing point stays unobstructed. The film also covers the canal's maintenance crisis, including a months-long 2024 shutdown of a large lock chamber at Brunsbüttel and a widening project that removed up to 30,000 cubic meters of soil per day. Freight operators explain why routing containers through the canal instead of by truck cuts fuel use and emissions. The result is a portrait of aging infrastructure under constant strain, seen through the daily lives of the people who depend on it.