This film is set in a medieval mill town in the Harz mountains. The greedy and brutal millman and his accomplices, the castle steward and the mayor, set fire to a forest mill that the farmers used for processing their grain. Without their mill, the farmers must now rely on the millman's services. When the farmhand Anna uncovers the millman’s crimes, he swiftly detains her and a young miller, Jörg. The forest spirits have a different plan, however, and they free the young couple with the charge to rebuild the ruined forest mill and turn things around for the villagers.

Anthropologist Tobias Schmidt-Eberbach is about to get married. However, a find of a prehistoric skull on his wedding day messes up his plans. So does hitchhiker Uschi Mueller who he picks up merely by accident. It does not help that the police thinks that Tobias is a serial killer and Uschi his next victim, and neither that the real killer is still on the loose…

Several children find out what's the matter with a wreck offshore, which puts them into jeopardy.

An East Berlin woman falls in love with a Swiss cook.

In 1955, Michael Vierkant, a Jew who had emigrated during the Nazi era, returns from abroad to the Federal Republic of Germany to obtain the conviction of Korn, the former informer responsible for the murder of his sister. Korn is back in office; Michael's efforts remain unsuccessful. There is a direct confrontation between the two, and Michael shoots Korn in self-defense. He flees and is hidden by the young, reclusive artist Marie Jäger, but is then caught by the police and charged with premeditated murder. The case is taken out of the hands of the criminal investigation department by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which constructs an act of political revenge on behalf of the communists. Michael manages to escape from prison. Marie and her friends organize a press conference at which Michael reveals the connections. The trial is postponed.

Set in Berlin in the eighties of the 19th century. The focus is on the upper-class family of Kommerzienrat Treibel and the family of Professor Schmidt, who live in modest circumstances. For the former, outward appearances, possessions and the resulting social standing have the importance that education and authenticity have for the latter. The friendly contact between them by no means goes so far that, from Jenny Treibel's point of view, an engagement between their children would not threaten the social order.

During a weekend spent on the island Hiddensee, the snobbish high school student Jan, who has just been expelled from school, meets Christine. Christine is impressed with his bragging attitude although he just uses it to hide his insecurity and his remorse about the fact that he was sacked. Naturally, he keeps quiet about his current situation. Christine’s companion Hannes is less thrilled about Jan. Later on, the three of them meet again at a dockyard in Stralsund. After the disreputable end of his school career, Jan is assigned to the very brigade in which Christine and Hannes work as a crane operator and a brigadier respectively.