Ralf and Bea Maurer's marriage has being decaying for a while. Ralf is 56, he is unemployed and has decided to retire. Bea, on the other hand, is still quite active and is starting to become unable to cope with the mask of soft middle age self-indulging with which Ralf is hiding himself. During a weekend spent in Brandenburg, two masked men assault the couple. As a result of the humiliation that follows this assault, Ralf is induced to take off his cover. By doing so he thinks he has faced the truth beneath his frustrations and salvaged his marriage. But it might be too late.

In 1936 Nazi Germany, a young, innocent apprentice, full of Olympic fever, leaves his rural village to see the ceremonies in Berlin. Upon arriving in the capitol, he meets a widow and a relationship blossoms. They spend an idyllic summer at her lakeside home, but the forces of totalitarianism cannot be held at bay and soon invade their lives.