Holding hands, 10-year-old Jule Schmidt and her 7-year-old brother Killian admire glowing Christmas lanterns on the Rhine River. Since birth, Killian has been blind. So, Jule is his eyes and always tries to see for him. She points out all the wonderful sights in the world. On this special night, Jule and Killian wander from their parents and sit on the old rickety bridge that crosses a narrow part of the river. Jule likes to make prayers to the angels and insists that she has met a large angel by the bridge. She tells Killian that the angel told her that he would be healed of blindness.
As Killian sits down on the corner of the creaking bridge, Jule sits beside him. She hopes that the angel appears. When Jule spoke to the angel, she said the angel told her that in certain seasons she descends into the river and stirs up the water. Then, after she stirs up the water, whoever first steps into the river is made well from whatever disease is in their body. Killian says he thinks that he shouldn’t get into the river because he cannot swim, and he might drown. With that, a mighty wind blows the lanterns across the river in a squall, and the side of the bridge where Killian and Jule are sitting breaks. The brother and sister fall into the raging current of the river. Jule kicks as hard as she can to keep her and her brother afloat.
As Jule looks at her brother with fear, a bright light shines on them from above the river. Then, a loud voice booms throughout the rippling water: “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened.” Suddenly, the angel with long golden hair and a pink dress with a blue flowing jacket stands before them. Before they drown in the water, their father grabs both children by the arms and swims with them to the surface. Both children feel a second pair of large hands on their forearms from the angel in the pink dress. The crowd of people on the riverbank throw a scarf into the river, which Christoph grabs. The father and his two children are pulled to shore as the angel did more than her share of towing the family to the bank. Killian covers his eyes from the shining lights from the Christmas lanterns. He buries his head in his father’s shoulder. Killian realizes that he can see for the first time because of the Angel that Troubled the Waters. Jule got her prayers answered for her brother, and all the trouble had somehow been turned to good because her brother could finally see.
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