A film about a piece of Germany's dark past at the end of the 19th century.

One of the main theses of the Marienthal study was that prolonged unemployment leads to a state of apathy in which the victims do not utilize any longer even the few opportunities left to them. The vicious cycle between reduced opportunities and reduced level of aspiration has remained the focus of all subsequent discussions.

A theatrical group prepare Voltaire’s play “Alzire”. From this the ideas of Voltaire are examined as they relate to the present day political situation.

Andreas, who is ten, has been brought up by his grandmother. When she dies, he removes a putto from the crucifix placed upon her, puts it in his mouth and does not speak again. The attempts by adults to make a normal child out of him only cause him to flee deeper into his fantasy world - a village of snow. At its center is a snowman with whom Andreas converses.

Vienna in the early eighties: After a suicide attempt, Tina, who comes from a middle-class family, is hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. There she gets to know Gerhard, an apprentice plumber, who also wanted to do away with himself. He comes from a working class family. They fall for each other. A modern love story which is set inside the real life circumstances of the closing of the alternative Youth Center "Gassergasse" in Vienna.

Mr. Kliminov wakes up in a hospital where no one seems to treat him the right way.