In the face of an impending catastrophe, a family holes up in their house. The mother, Anna, has dedicated her life to housework and the children. She tries to create a warm home for her family in the cramped and dark isolation. But the threat draws inexorably closer. When supplies run out and her husband sets out to get supplies, Anna's only support falls away.

A young Berlin photographer participates in an apartment swap with a stranger in Marseille to briefly explore the French city.

The famous forensic phonetician Matthias Hegel is a luminary in his field. Even the slightest deviation in the sound of a voice is enough for him to distinguish truth from lies and thus convict criminals. But now the police consultant confesses to having committed a gruesome murder.

A kindly but poverty-stricken fisherman catches a magical fish. The fish begs him to let it go, claiming to be a prince. The fisherman lets it go and tells his wife all about it. The fisherman's wife is overbearing and greedy and she demands that he go back and ask the fish to grant him a wish out of gratitude. The fisherman does not have any desires, so the wife tells him to make the fish give them a nicer house, which is what she wants. Mandje! Mandje! Timpe Te! Flounder, flounder, in the sea! For my wife, good ilsabil, Wills not as I'd have her will."

The two washed-up TV stars Micki and Ginger and the unemployed physicist Reno try to kidnap a young woman. But one of the three kidnappers suddenly doubts the value of the money and drives his accomplices mad. The kidnapped woman is already missing. Three children from a good family are looking for their sister: the dutiful Junior, who counts up his day in seconds, his brother Adrian, who, by contrast, thinks life is one big family outing, and Sophia, the artist, who never finds the real thing in life.

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.

Sunday morning. A woman, her young lover and her husband after a party. The young man leaves the house. The couple is left alone.

Dené, head coach of a professional football club, passes away and leaves behind a world of sorrow. As club officials try to fill his place, events begin to shift - the signing of a new coach fails, and the team does not show up for the final game. Those involved find themselves in surreal encounters, while Muslim prayers merge with backroom conversations.