The end of the 14th century. Parents send the eldest son Jan to study in Hamburg, and the youngest - Klaus - to the monastery. No sooner had the children moved away from their homes, as on Klaus'es eyes the robbers kill their parents and burn the house. Only thanks to the loyal monk Wigbold Klaus managed to survive the shock. A few years later Klaus Störtebeker finds his brother Jan and his long-time friend Elizabeth Pren in Hamburg. From her, he learns that she is expected to marry Simon von Wallenrod, whose father Klaus suspects of killing his parents. But the Pranks and the Wallenrods are rich and respected people, and Klaus is a poor man. And now he becomes a pirate...

Mid-19th-century, Baltic Sea port city of Lubeck, Germany. Follows the fourth generation of the Buddenbrook mercantile family as Tony and Thomas reach the age of marriage. Fatefully impeded every step of the way, the Buddenbrooks struggle as economic hardship and personal defeats weigh down family relations.

Munich lawyer Peter Baumann's marriage falls apart. His wife Katja moves to a Bavarian mountain village to become rural assistant (social worker). To her surprise, she's assigned the case of old cattle farmer Senner Sepp, who never leaves his alp meadow and home, but whose daughter wants him 'safely' in a rest home. Katja's daughter Kiki hates being dragged along and arranges for Peter to join them uninvited. Kiki's initial rudeness to handsome, courteous fatherless farmer son Matze Gmeiner soon turns, but the arrival of her brat friends spoils that budding romance till further notice.