Christine inherits a sailboat from her father, whom she barely knew. Christine is a divorced single mother and her job at a research insitute leaves her with too much work and too little time to sail. She can't find anyone to buy the boat at full value, so she tries to repair it over the winter in the hopes of being able to get a better price in the spring. Working on the boat become something of an obsession to the detriment of Christine's relationships with her son, boyfriend and collegues. When the boat is finally ready to sell, she isn't sure that she is willing to part with it after all.

Experiences during a voyage with a KDF-steamer (Kraft Durch Freude = Power Through Joy, a nazi campaign that allowed working class people to make affordable holidays often on steamers).Grumpy old Petermann is a moaner, but during a KDF-tour on the "Der Deutsche" there's so much Freude that he is transformed into a playful nice old chap. It has some beautiful moments despite the obvious promotion of the KDFconcept.

Otto is pressured by his former girlfriend Mila to marry her. His friend and colleague Franz gets him a new job at Bernhard Münchow's remote auto repair shop, where Otto is safe from Mila for the time being. But then he falls in love with Käthe, the daughter of the owner of the shipyard “Zum grauen Hecht,” and finds a bitter enemy in Ladewig, who is also in love with Käthe and who puts Mila back on Otto's trail. Mila, however, falls in love with garage owner Münchow, who is only interested in her supposed fortune...