A policeman leads a well-ordered life with his wife and 18-year-old daughter. The apparent idyll is abruptly shattered when the daughter is linked to the murder of two police officers, both colleagues of the father. While the daughter remains resolutely silent about the accusations while in custody, the father sees the illusion of his intact family fade more and more.

Inspector Susanne Landauer is called to a mission in the country. A schizophrenic woman admitted anonymously years ago has disappeared from Dr. Mangold's clinic. Susanne can only recover the woman dead from the nearby river. A DNA comparison reveals that the dead woman is her biological mother. Luckily, Susanne's partner Isabell is there for her.

Once again, 16-year-old Jonas starts at a new school and, as always, he has no intention of being anybody’s darling. Jonas has muscular dystrophy, is confined to a wheelchair and knows that he will die sooner rather than later from this incurable and progressive disease. His mother Alma, who raises Jonas alone and would rather take a second job than forego therapy for him, is determined to delay his deterioration. She has placed Jonas with Dr. Wildenhahn, an authority on Duchenne disease. The doctor manages to be taken seriously by Jonas, that is until he gets to know Emily, Marianne Wildenhahn's daughter, who goes to his class. Emily has a massively low academic grade, which she hides from her mother because of the doctor’s high standards. Emily falls in love with Jonas, and her sincere affection gives him the courage to love her back. Emily and Jonas become a couple, overcoming all obstacles.

April 1945. In a dramatic operation the SS transports 139 special prisoners, and kin of the prisoners, into the Alps. The plan: to use the prisoners as bargaining chips in possible negotiations with the Allies. During the journey a number of prisoners plan their escape and experience six days between liberty and death, their fates in the hands of ruthless and increasingly nervous criminals. But the hostages band together and turn the tables with a clever ploy: they call in the Wehrmacht to aid them…

With "Emil and the Detectives" Erich Kästner is revolutionizing children's book literature. In the Weimar Republic, he quickly rose as an editor, writer and screenwriter. His books were burned in 1933. Nevertheless, he does not emigrate, published under a pseudonym and abroad. In the post-war period, Kästner was a moral authority. But he can no longer build on his previous success, gets caught up in love affairs and fights his frustration with alcohol. Until his death in 1974, he struggled with the decision not to go into exile. The documentary drama takes a new look at Kästner's picture.