In 1984 East Berlin, dedicated Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler begins spying on a famous playwright and his actress-lover Christa-Maria. Wiesler becomes unexpectedly sympathetic to the couple, and faces conflicting loyalties when his superior takes a liking to Christa-Maria.

"Maria am Wasser" tells a story of the search in symbolic allusions and beautiful, fairytale pictures. The search for love, past, reconciliation and forgiveness. Summer 1983 in Saxony. A tank drives with four children of the orphanage "Frohe Zukunft" through the Elbe. The excursion seems to end fatally for all children, as the tank sinks. 22 years later, organ builder Marcus Lenk returns to his home village of Neusorge and claims to be one of the children. Marcus is perplexed: no one recognizes him. Not even his father Hannes, who lives with a few sheep, nor his mother Mary, who runs the orphanage with a strict hand, believe in his identity.

Ina, just released from prison, returns to the place of her childhood in search of life and meets the occasional desperado Domühl in her mother's house, which has been empty for thirty years. Hagen, a mentally handicapped resident, also ends up in this unusual landscape somewhere in the middle of nowhere south of Berlin in search of his uncle.

Elated by the Italian attitude to life, family Struutz returns to Bitterfeld and experiences a shock: In the turmoil of the reunification her house must give way to a golf course. Hope Udo teacher, his wife Rita and daughter Jacqueline through the surprising inheritance of a factory near Dresden. But of market economy, the staid Saxons unfortunately have no idea. Help comes in the guise of adventurer and condoms dealer Charlie, who works as a "business consultant" and gives Udo a Rock & Roll crash course in capitalism - with unsurpassed success.

Family Struutz lives in Bitterfeld (GDR). After the fall of the wall, they take the opportunity to go on holiday with their car, an old Trabant. They simply want to visit Italy. But there are some incidents during their journey.

Germany, 1931. The youth novel "Emil and the Detectives" is being filmed, which will make its author, Erich Kästner, world famous. An unusual friendship begins between the childless author and fatherless Hans, the 9-year-old playing the character Little Tuesday. Their friendship is put to the ultimate test in the Third Reich when Kästner's books are banned and little Hans becomes a Hitler Youth. Based on a true story.

In a small Northern German town, a dishonourably discharged Afghanistan veteran is offered a job as a deliveryman by an alcoholic Turkish entrepreneur, through which the former meets the latter's gorgeous wife.

Martin is the ambitious one in the family. He is poised to start on his doctorate, when he is diagnosed with testicular cancer and all his future plans begin to unravel. The removal of one testicle reduces the most immediate threat, but the cancer has already spread and Martin's doctor argues for an operation that would save him, but could also castrate him.