Duke Henry XI of Liegnitz, a "drunkard" and "glutton", slaps his wife Sophia in the face because she calls his mistress a whore. When the Duchess then flees to her brother, the Margrave of Ansbach, Henry fears that the population and his brother will take up arms against him. He leaves Leignitz and travels to Prague to dissuade his brother Frederick from his plan to sue him before the emperor. However, Heinrich gets a rebuff and is placed under arrest. Eventually, however, he is released...

When they start losing family members and neighbors due to WWII and the Nazi government's policies, a quiet married couple becomes disillusioned and begins spreading leaflets against the government - a crime punishable by death.

In wartime Berlin, a factory foreman, Otto Quangel and his wife, Anna learn that their only son, Paul, has been killed in action in France. In their grief, the couple decide to take action against the Nazi regime. They create their own form of resistance, writing postcards urging people to resist Hitler and the Nazis and quietly distributing the postcards around Berlin. Various people enter the picture, showing the fear and distrust of the times. People, such as the actor Harteisen, find the cards and race to turn them in, lest they be found with them and come under suspicion. The police and the Gestapo are baffled for over a year, but finally find the source of the cards. The Volksgerichtshof sentences the Quangels to death.

Eberhard Dobermann is a widower and a policeman who loves to control the roads and let people pay fines. Even with his neighbour and friend Jutta Schmalbach he has no pity. Thus he cannot understand why his daughter Karin just falls in love with a racing pilot called Walter. But it gets even worse when Eberhard wins a VW-Kaefer at the annual police party. So he has to learn to drive and thus even brings his teacher close to a heart attack.

Paris, 1888. With the help of forensic medicine, a sensational criminal case is uncovered. The chief of the Paris Sûreté, Inspector Goron, with the help of Lyon University Professor Lacassagne, is able to solve a capital crime that seemed unsolvable according to the methods of forensic science at the time. By analyzing the bone structure, Lacassagne identifies an unknown dead man as the Parisian civil servant Alphonse Gouffé, who disappeared months ago, and is also able to prove that he was murdered. The murder suspects include Gabrielle Bompard and her lover Michele Eyraudt.

Retired tax official Willi Winzig spends his retirement happily and contentedly in his home. However, this changes when his sister Heidelinde, her daughter and his father want to move in with him, and as Willi is a good-natured man, he takes them in, but because they have no money and his pension is not enough for all four of them, he has to take on a new job. He gets a job as a salesman for household appliances, but his good nature gets in the way again.