Captain Jim Leslie, a US Air Force pilot, is transferred to a remote Alaskan base not far from the Soviet border. Here he meets his old friend Harris again and falls in love with Brenda, the commander's daughter. He then comes into conflict with her fiancé, Senator Gordon Gray. At his instigation, he is sent on a dangerous mission with Harris and the navigator Hester: During a storm, the buoys deployed to locate Soviet submarines must be checked. During the emergency landing on an ice floe, Harris suffers a life-threatening injury. They are in Soviet territory, but in view of the situation Jim disregards the radio ban and sends a distress signal. A Soviet submarine appears, Harris is operated on and they are helped to get the plane ready for take-off. Arriving at the base, Jim is arrested. Brenda turns her back on him.

Using the example of three generations of a Hamburg working class family, the rise of the working class from the founding of the Wilhelmin Empire to the First World War, over the time of the Weimar Republic and National Socialism to the destruction of the Third Reich.

Laboratory technician Jutta and factory worker Peter have been a couple since the summer and are enjoying their time together. One day, Jutta realizes that she might be pregnant. The doctor doesn't want to make a preliminary diagnosis until Monday - and today is Friday. The weekend is a tough test for Jutta. How should she decide - for or against the child, should she get married, should she have an abortion? The encounters with Peter, her parents, her friend with the twins and her colleagues don't make it any easier. In the end, Jutta and Peter have to decide on their own.

Dr. Zacharias is an experienced and demanding woman. She sees her daughter Manuela as the continuation and fulfillment of her own life. She wants her daughter to achieve as much or more than her, and under the easier conditions of the present time. But Manuela does not seem to be the type who can fulfill this aspiration, as she is superficial and stubborn. Manuela is even expelled from the university for cheating. But even now she seems unwilling to recognize her mistakes and turn her life around.

Major Leska, who has proven himself as a troop officer in a tank battalion in complicated maneuvers, is to become an instructor. He sees this as a challenge and is looking forward to the new task. But then the decision is made in favor of his friend Hans Helbig, who has just graduated from the military academy with distinction and was once Leska's subordinate. The conflict that erupts between Leska and Hans puts a strain on their working relationship and puts their friendship to the test. They have to prove themselves during an important maneuver.

Civil engineer Berger is looking for his mother and learns that she has died and was last in a home run by the notorious construction company Huberty. When the company boss Huberty becomes the victim of an assassination attempt shortly afterwards, suspicion falls on Berger, but Huberty's death is linked to the fraudulent bankruptcy of the construction company. The boss's wife is found to be the culprit. An unpleasant surprise awaits Berger, a civil engineer from Hamburg, when he returns home after years of working in Mexico: his mother has disappeared. Her tracks are lost in a "retirement home" run by the Huberty Society. Berger suspects that his mother has been the victim of a crime. He hunts a murderer and becomes the hunted himself...

A story of Victor Jara - one of the most popular singers in Chile.

The time is World War II, and Juergen Siebusch and his mother are retreating along with the German army, just ahead of the invading Russian forces. Both mother and son hole up in the town of Hohengoerse, where Juergen finds some work watching over sheep - and learns a bit about the facts of sheep life that he extrapolates to some advantage when he meets the appealing Amelie, daughter of the landowner. He first helps Amelie out and later applies his new-found knowledge in a barn, appropriately enough. As the Red Army draws near, Juergen deserts a hastily put-together "people's force," as he prefers the barn to the gun. Russian soldiers are shown sleeping and snoring next to their tanks, and the local fascist executed - the war is over. When the new Communist government sets up a land reform package, Amelie's mother's land gets divided up into small plots for small farmers.

In May 1945, a woman in Marienbad reports a murder - committed in 1933 against the German emigrant Professor Lessing. She also names the murderer. Against the wishes of his superior, who does not feel responsible for this case - it was a fascist femicide - Inspector Šedý picks up the trail and arrests the murderer, the German Eckert. Eckert was a fugitive at the trial in 1933, and now the evidence is no longer available. Nevertheless, Šedý does everything he can to convict him. He finds witnesses who support him - anti-fascists, but also former collaborators who want to clear themselves. Reconstructing the case at the crime scene, Šedý is able to prove that Eckert was at least an accessory. He is convicted. After his release from prison, Eckert goes to West Germany, where he demands compensation from his former clients.