Delegates and workmen from China appear in a small Bavarian village to dismantle and ship to their country parts of a shut-down industrial plant. Four Bavarian labourers are supposed to assist them in their efforts, and in spite of cultural differences and language barriers this rather unusual encounter of two cultures seems to go pretty well.

Former prisoner Frank Gormann is given a suitcase full of hundred-mark bills, which also contains a pistol and a photo of a man who is to be killed. Coincidence or an offer? Frank's "luck" seems perfect when he meets the beautiful Julia, with whom he wants to spend the money. But the coincidences soon turn out to be a calculated crime.

The 1930s in a Bavarian border village. The rich farmer Kapeller does not want to allow his son Franz to marry Lori, the daughter of the "needy" farmer Nikodemus Sterntaler. This is when Sterntaler's father-in-law Wendelin Kloiber, a hallodri and self-proclaimed do-gooder, appears on the scene. He cleverly takes advantage of the fact that the housekeeper Cordula and the Seeleitner, a square rat of the highest order, cannot keep their mouths shut.

Family Struutz lives in Bitterfeld (GDR). After the fall of the wall, they take the opportunity to go on holiday with their car, an old Trabant. They simply want to visit Italy. But there are some incidents during their journey.