They are actually a mother-daughter team that could hardly be more harmonious: the respected Hamburg pediatrician Claudia Kayser and her almost 17-year-old daughter Carolin. Since the tragic death of her beloved father, the two have become even closer - at that time the girl helped her grieving mother to overcome a difficult emotional depression.

At the beginning of 2008, 33 young film and television graduates from the Media Academy in Hamburg set out in search of their city, their Hamburg.

Filmmaker Fritz Lang seeks inspiration for his first sound film by immersing himself in the case of serial killer Peter Kürten.

Simone Carstensen-Kleebach actually has everything one could wish for in life: a husband who supports her and with whom she has been married for almost 20 years, a daughter and great career success. But the pressure to be perfect in all these roles lends Simone more and more. When she meets Leon on vacation, it sparks. And although Simone never thought it possible to "do something like that," she gets involved in an affair with him. Back in Hamburg with the family, Simone suddenly receives compromising photos of Leon and himself. But who took the pictures and what does the sender want to achieve?

German Laura follows her husband and moves to Finland with their baby girl. Her days at home are lonely as her husband is constantly working.

When Isa provokes the Nazis with a satirical song at her graduation party, she is denied her degree despite passing her exams. She has to give up her plan to become a teacher and, against her mother Petra's wishes, manages to perform in a political cabaret. She enjoys stage success as a singer with an accordion and falls in love with the pianist Laurenz. During the Second World War, Isa's family gets caught up in the wheels of political power and is torn apart - until, after much turbulence, the Vermehrens regain their old cohesion and accompany Isa together as she enters a convent in Bonn.