For a lifetime, Hedi Ohlsen subordinated her needs to the family. She raised a child, took care of the house and learned the unloved profession of dental assistant for the sake of her husband Johannes. And although John has left her for a younger one, Hedi still cares for her elderly mother-in-law Agnes. As this now blesses the time and Hedi finally wants to start her own life, suddenly her pregnant daughter Leonie is attacking at the door. She has quit, no money and no father for the child Hedi is to raise for her. Is the dream of late freedom back?

Schtonk! is a farce of the actual events of 1983, when Germany's Stern magazine published, with great fanfare, 60 volumes of the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler – which two weeks later turned out to be entirely fake. Fritz Knobel (based on real-life forger Konrad Kujau) supports himself by faking and selling Nazi memorabilia. When Knobel writes and sells a volume of Hitler's (nonexistent) diaries, he thinks it's just another job. When sleazy journalist Hermann Willié learns of the diaries, however, he quickly realizes their potential value... and Knobel is quickly in over his head. As the pressure builds and Knobel is forced to deliver more and more volumes of the fake diaries, he finds himself acting increasingly like the man whose life he is rewriting. The film is a romping and hilarious satire, poking fun not only at the events and characters involved in the hoax (who are only thinly disguised in the film), but at the discomfort Germany has with its difficult past.

Marie Gruber fights tooth and claw to keep her café open. And yet she should be facing her "arch-enemy" with pure hostility. But she unwittingly falls in love with the real estate speculator who wants to take the café away from her. When the two confess their love for each other, the trouble really begins...

The former waiter Ernst Held believes himself to be called higher and seeks self-realization as a poet. When he recites poems to his wife's beautician in an ambiguous situation, his wife puts him out the door. Completely destitute, the thwarted poet must therefore return to the lowlands of life and become the head in the Munich pub "Goldener Löffel".

In her teens, Mme. Zachanassian had to flee her home town in disgrace. Now she's old and rich and the town is facing bankruptcy. But she returns with news that she wants to help - as long as the townsfolk kill someone for her.

The master of the house developed his culinary skills to such an extent that he poached 'the' chef and hired him for his household in New York. Lilli flies to New York with her private secretary William, where she cooks for her unknown boss using every trick in the book. During a walk she meets a young man with whom she ultimately falls in love.

Mathias Ferner commits perjury and is thus able to secure the farm of his stepbrother Jakob as soon as he dies. In doing so, he deprives Paula Roth and the children of their inheritance. However, there is a letter incriminating Mathias Ferner. Years later, Paula Roth gets her hands on this letter.