The film tells the love story of two young couples. According to their social ranks, construction worker Edy is dating employee Siegi, while medical student Dieter is dating art school student Sonja. Rather unintentionally, they exchange partners. During a carnival ball, Dieter makes out with Siegi because he falls for her her fresh and happy girlish manner. Sonja coolly observes this game and sees this intermezzo as a test for their relationship. While Siegi and Dieter vacation at the sea, Sonja falls in love with Edy. Now the die seems to be cast for new constellations. But when both couples stand in front of the registrar’s office, they finally come to their senses.

Europe in 1793. For years, England and France have been at war with each other. Now, France sends three men to the British colony of Jamaica to organize a slave revolt. The envoys are Debuisson, the grandson of a Jamaican rum manufacturer, who knows the island very well, his old friend Sasportas, and the sailor Galloudec. After having established contact with the fragmented rebel groups, they receive the surprising news of Napoleon′s takeover in France. Whereas Debuisson, who by now has gotten used to his role as a rich heir, wants to wait for new instructions from home, his companions are determined to press ahead with the revolt. When a slave kills a British guard, the situation escalates.

The corner Schönhauser Allee in East Berlin is the main meeting-point for a group of adolescents. Dieter is a construction worker who falls in love with Angela. She, in turn, spends time with the clique whenever her mother is occupied with her new lover. "Kohle" stays away from home to avoid his dad's alcohol problem, and Karl-Heinz is on his way to becoming a small-time criminal. Due to their interest in western music and culture they are regarded as no-goods and rowdies. Things get interesting when an incident forces Dieter and "Kohle" to escape to West Germany. Written by c.winter

Soldier Ignaz Wolz returns from WWI with an immeasurable hatred of capitalist war profiteers. He decides to start his own revolution, but tries to stay away from the organized class struggle. He steals from the rich men and divides the wealth among the poor. One day, Wolz is arrested and sentenced to life in prison; seven years later he is released due to mass protests. More than ever, it is hard for him to fit in. He severs ties with his former companions, who reject his ideas, and leaves Germany.

In 1930s Berlin, a woman’s life unravels as her unemployed husband succumbs to Nazi propaganda and joins the Storm Troopers, while her brother's anti-Nazi stance leads to his death, prompting her to confront her beliefs and make a risky choice.

The story of the steel melter Martin Hoff, whose factory delegates him to a drama school, corresponds to the real life of the actor Manfred Krug. Like his (film) hero, Krug works as a steel melter, does artwork, sings and acts, and is sent to drama school. Like his hero, who behaves anarchically and conspicuously, Krug is soon expelled from school.

August 1961. The former Foreign Legionnaire, King, has collected a gang of hooligans, with whom he creates mischief in the GDR. After some careless work on a construction site, an event during which two people lose their lives, they move to a campsite on the Baltic Sea. With sputtering mopeds, loud radios, and occasional outbursts, the gang makes the vacationers' lives living hell. Unfortunately for them, Lieutenant Czernik discovers the connection between them and the accident at the construction site. To stop them from fleeing to West Berlin, Lieutenant Czernik and the police need to arrest them, one at a time, with King as the last.

Inge Karsten receives an unexpected visit from her former student friend Margit from the West. She is even more surprised to hear that she is married to her stepbrother Herbert, who was long thought to be missing and whom she had almost forgotten. He last lived in Canada. This presents Inge's husband Horst, who has an important job as a military pilot, with a conflict of conscience. The situation is even more serious than it seems at first glance. In truth, Margit is an agent and the whole story is a staged game by the West German secret service...

The Ruhr area in November of 1918. 13-year old Achim Wolters and his friends get their hands on some potatoes on the market. They want to surprise Achim′s father, who works on a mine sweeper boat, with a decent meal. But Achim′s father does not show up – an informer at the train station has betrayed him for his left-wing beliefs and has turned him over to the police. The priest tells Achim the sad news and advises him to pray for the release of his father. But when carpenter Stelzebein stresses that everybody has to take actions for himself, the devout boy at first does not believe in Stelzebein′s words. But then Achim witnesses in the prison how brutally the imperial police treat his father and the other inmates. Together with his loyal friends, Achim takes Stelzebein′s side. When the revolution starts, they stand together on the barricades.