36-year-old Birgit desires nothing more than an intact family. Since she lives with her husband Andreas, the common child Philip and Sarah, her daughter from a previous, failed relationship in solid economic conditions in a terraced house, she feels very close to her ideal. Through Sarah's puberty, the family is put to the test. But Birgit believes that luckily only the formal confirmation of the adoption of Sarah by Andreas is missing.

Docu-drama, based on the screenplay by Strauß biographer and Grimme Prize winner Werner Biermann, traces the rise of the young Franz Josef: from the artisan milieu of Munich's Schellingstraße to one of the most prominent politicians in German post-war history - including experiences never before told on television by Strauß during his childhood and youth, during the Nazi era, during the war and immediately afterwards. These are experiences that shaped Strauß as a politician.