When Isa provokes the Nazis with a satirical song at her graduation party, she is denied her degree despite passing her exams. She has to give up her plan to become a teacher and, against her mother Petra's wishes, manages to perform in a political cabaret. She enjoys stage success as a singer with an accordion and falls in love with the pianist Laurenz. During the Second World War, Isa's family gets caught up in the wheels of political power and is torn apart - until, after much turbulence, the Vermehrens regain their old cohesion and accompany Isa together as she enters a convent in Bonn.

The German lightship (permanently anchored floating 'lighthouse') Borkum Riff is about to be decommissioned. For his last tour of duty, Captain Johann Freytag brings along his near-adult, estranged son Fred. The ship picks up three men stranded in a broken-down boat--who are armed. The captain tries to avoid trouble, but the crew, his son, and the trio of violent robbers on the run keep rejecting his nonviolent advice, which leads to repeated bloodshed.

At the beginning of 2008, 33 young film and television graduates from the Media Academy in Hamburg set out in search of their city, their Hamburg.

Three children and their Grandpa are on a kayak-outdoor trip in the middle of nowhere, when their Grandpa suffers a heart attack in the wilderness - to rescue themselves and their Grandpa the children have to help themselves and fight their way back to civilization.

Lilly Borchert has big plans after graduating from high school and joins the navy as a medical officer to travel the world and prepare for her aspirations to study medicine. But the rules are tough and the nights are short. She finds it hard to make friends in the close-knit crew under Captain Krug. Cadet Klara in particular makes life difficult for her. Lilly records her ordeals, which are accompanied by sleep deprivation and abdominal pain, in a diary. She crosses off the days that separate her from a reunion with her family. One night, when Lilly takes up the lookout post, a tragic accident occurs in which she goes overboard. The search for her in the icy waves is unsuccessful, but she cannot be rescued. What happened to the young woman and how could it come to this?