Allied prisoners tunnel out of a stalag, then return to avenge fellow escapees executed by the Nazis.

The tranquil family life of a police officer is disrupted when a colleague on duty goes berserk and expects him to make a false statement. A question of conscience? But how does one live with a guilty conscience if one violates the unwritten laws of the police?

In the Second World War, spring 1944: shortly before the planned Ardennes offensive, Germans and Americans stand waiting on the German-Belgian border. The small Eifel village of Winterspelt threatens to become the scene of a bloody battle. A German officer comes up with a plan to hand over his battalion to the Americans without a fight. He finds support from three inhabitants of the small village, who help him to present his offer of surrender to the Americans, which they ultimately reject.

Dr. Philipp Achtermann, a microbiologist from the GDR, was attending a conference in Frankfurt on business. On the return journey with his wife Nina, he allows himself a deviation from the prescribed route. On a side road near Lake Chiemsee, Achtermann's Wartburg collides with a West German BMW. At the wheel is Tom Maiwald, an architect.