He's handsome and poor, she's rich and plump: can that work in the long run? Miriam meets Kai, a student, in a car accident. The chubby daughter from a good family and the handsome have-not fall in love. Her friends are horrified. Will the two make it anyway?

Jil has found great love in the landscape architect Marc. There is only a tiny problem: Marc is not a Jew, and Jil's devout Jewish family would never accept marrying a "goi," a non-Jew. There is only one thing that helps: Marc, son of a German bourgeois family, must pretend that he is also a Jew. After a quick course in terms of traditions and customs, this also seems to work quite well. Jil's family is thrilled with the new friend. But then the dizziness flies up just during a big bar mitzvah celebration - and Jil has to decide.

Three musically talented children look to the future, but their hopes crumble when Germany and Russia enter into war.