Using the example of three generations of a Hamburg working class family, the rise of the working class from the founding of the Wilhelmin Empire to the First World War, over the time of the Weimar Republic and National Socialism to the destruction of the Third Reich.

Herbert (Heinz Lieven) is a solid, middle-class engineer who one day quits his job and ensconces himself at home (preferably in the bathroom), refusing to say very much to anyone. His wife (Dorothea Moritz ) is all the more upset at his behavior because on Sunday mornings he goes out into the street and yells at the top of his lungs for everyone to "get up." Eventually, the hard-working wife who is also earning their support convinces Herbert to go to a clinic for treatment. But is it a clinic he needs? Or is Herbert rebelling against a society that is too ordered, too sterile, too buried in the monotony of routine?

Young Anna Hallbauer, daughter of a blind trumpeter, is suspected of infanticide. In the winter of 1802, children playing in a pond near the village of Sanden found the body of a newborn baby. Heinz Schirmer, a geographer appointed by Baron von Droste, has enough evidence to bring Hallbauer to trial. In the course of the proceedings, in which he believes he is serving absolute, infallible justice, he suddenly finds himself entangled in the crime...

At the textile company, everyone appreciates the work of 18-year-old Susanne, but nobody really considers her a woman—including Lutz, with whom she is in love. She sets about to make a change, but it is only when she realizes that she is being taken advantage of that a more self-confident Susanne emerges.

A small town in West Germany. Material for an exhibition with documents from the Nazi era was stolen from Herbert Geerts, only the negatives of the photos did not fall into the hands of the perpetrator. Geerts is found murdered and the group of people who were incriminated by the documents are suspects. Detective Weber takes on the case, which turns out to be "a case of fireworks", and follows the trail of a Nazi criminal...

Jürgen Fohrmann works as a hauer underground. In the course of the coal crisis, his mine closes - he loses the work. In this mood, his wife's prosperity thinking gets on his nerves - his marriage threatens to break. The dismissed coal buddy applys, first becomes an auxiliary worker, but then receives a job in an automated operation of the electrical industry and believes to have socially risen through this "clean work". Fohrmann quickly realizes that wearing a "white coat" is only seemingly better than the arduous work in the pit and understands that he can no longer stay out of the work struggles of the buddies.