Journalist Sophie Bergmann is working on a legacy study on the effects of Hartz IV on society. She is increasingly reluctant to report on the symptoms of the labor market reform in isolation from its causes. At an EU conference in Brussels, she witnesses the German finance minister being put under pressure by a stranger. When she accidentally sees the same man getting into the car of the editor-in-chief of her newspaper, Sophie is irritated. With the help of Matti, the IT specialist from the editorial office, she begins to investigate.

Oliver, former European champion in the decathlon, came out after the end of his sporting career and divorced his wife Carolin. Since then he has had little connection to his 15-year-old daughter Alma. Oliver now lives in Hamburg with Felix, the owner of an outdoor shop. When Oliver's ex-wife dies after a car accident, Alma moves in with them at the request of her aunt Franziska. Full of mistrust of her homosexual father, the traumatized girl tries to initiate conflicts between Oliver and Felix and to break them up. Alma's friend Johannes also has reservations about gays. His family provides Alma with emotional support. Because Felix also shows a lot of understanding for Alma's needs, Oliver gets caught between the fronts.

Photographer Anja Niedringhaus was 26 when she came to Sarajevo in 1992 to report on the war. It's bitterly cold there, there's no electricity, hardly any food, and everyone's lives are constantly in danger. Spanish photographer Sergio takes her under his wing and shows her how to survive in a war zone. Anja reported on the scene with interruptions for almost three years, later she worked in Kosovo and Afghanistan, among other places. In 2001 she switched to the most renowned photo agency in the world, the Associated Press . Her photos end up on the front pages of the major international newspapers, and in 2005 she received the Pulitzer Prize for her reporting from Iraq. In Kabul, she meets the AP's chief correspondent, Kathy Gannon, and the two soon become an inseparable team. But then a devastating attack took place during the Afghan presidential elections in 2014.

Sandra, a young mother-to-be, fights to have her child stay with her after birth while she serves a prison sentence for aggravated assault.

Kathleen Selchow has been working as an educator in a daycare center for many years and leads a harmonious life with her husband Robert and son Luca, who goes to elementary school. The experienced educator takes charge of the motley group of children on an excursion to the nearby forest. Suddenly, Kathleen notices that two children, Jenny and Nico, are missing. A dramatic search with a tragic outcome begins. From one minute to the next, nothing in Kathleen's life is as it was.

A chemical engineer of foreign origin faces discrimination and bullying at work, plunging him into an identity crisis.

After the suicide of her husband and practice partner Rainer, psychologist Greta Chameni's life is turned upside down. She feels guilty about Rainer's death. And she is completely undecided about how to deal with her husband's patients.

The two washed-up TV stars Micki and Ginger and the unemployed physicist Reno try to kidnap a young woman. But one of the three kidnappers suddenly doubts the value of the money and drives his accomplices mad. The kidnapped woman is already missing. Three children from a good family are looking for their sister: the dutiful Junior, who counts up his day in seconds, his brother Adrian, who, by contrast, thinks life is one big family outing, and Sophia, the artist, who never finds the real thing in life.

Becky, Tommi and Maik form a right-wing terror cell that lives in the underground and is dreaming of country-wide attention. Entangled in a complex relationship of love, hate and friendship, they follow a path of destruction that leads to a series of violent crime. Their alleged values such as honor, pride and loyalty decline due to their increasing disorientation.

Germany, 1971: Erika (Anna Schudt) is actually completely overwhelmed by her work in the butchery of husband Kurt (Christian Erdmann), the education of three common children and additional obligations, which brings the village life, as her doctor also revealed that she is pregnant again. Another baby is the last thing she needs now, and so she decides to drive to her sister Charlotte (Alwara Höfels) to Cologne and let the baby abortively secretly abort. Since there are complications during the surgery and Erika can only be rescued, but her husband still learns from the matter. It comes to a huge dispute, in which another topic is the future of daughter Ulrike (Lene Oderich). Without further ado Erika then packs her things and moves with her children to Charlotte. But at a time when legislation inevitably makes her dependent on her husband, she is denied a self-determined new beginning. Erika decides to do something to change that ..