Writer Johannes Pfeiffer who goes undercover as a student in a high school after his friends told him that he missed out on a great life experience since he was home schooled.

In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.

The wealthy man Tobias Knopp becomes ever more lonely and quirky over the years. He had let himself go, his girth increased significantly, and his hair fell out. Over that, he waited too long for the right woman and stayed a bachelor involuntarily. But now, he wants to try again one more time and wants to get married after all. But first of all, the right woman for this has to be found, and thus Knopp embarks on a journey to look for a wife all through the German lands. During that, he visits his friends who are already married for a long time and gets all kinds of advice from them on how to get to know a woman and to conquer her heart. On his journey, Knopp then learns much about the different facets of married life. After countless adventures, he, however, doesn’t find an adequate partner and returns home frustrated. But perhaps, his housekeeper might be able to help out?

Juliane Thomas is an ambitious but unemployed young writer. After breaking up with her lover she works at a dentist friend to make ends meet. One day she instantly falls in love with one of the patients (Jean Berner) and promptly writes a movie script about the encounter in which she projects her own fantasies about how things will turn out eventually. By coincidence this movie script is picked up by a film director who happens to be Berner's closest friend and from then on things become very complicated...

After her husband dies, a German woman who gave up her infant for adoption to emigrate to America returns to Germany, discovering that her child is being raised by a married orchestra conductor.

A murder trial becomes a farce when a widow tries to convince the district attorney that she didn't drown her husband, with the help of an eccentric lawyer.

Anna is a factory worker in East Germany, but her five-year-old son Jochen lives with his grandparents in the West. Anna wants him to live with her, so she abducts him. Along the way she meets Carl, who helps her cross the border, and they fall in love.

London, in 1730. Charly, Jim and Ben work hard, with the brave Maud, in a cotton mill to earn a few shillings. They all dream of the wonderful island told by Daniel Defoe. The latter lives in a miserable room. He is disgraced and rejected by his son Tom, a scoundrel who blames his father for losing his position at the Court ...