East Berlin, 1973. Eighteen-year-old Hans Bronstein and his girlfriend arrive at his parents’ summer house to find a former Nazi camp Kapo chained there—employed when Hans’s father Arno and his friends were prisoners. Hans demands legal justice; Arno insists on his own retribution. Sister Elle, traumatized into institutionalization, cannot mediate. When Arno forces a confession, Hans frees the prisoner, confronting their irreconcilable pasts.

On a winter morning, a mother goes to waken her son Heinrich; his bed is empty. She leaves her flat to find him. The neighbors' door, with a Star of David painted on it, is ajar, the furnishings in disarray, the family gone. She asks passersby, runs to the police then on to the rail yard. Flashbacks show that Heinrich and the neighbors' son Paul are six years old and best friends. Paul's family's deportation is expected soon; Heinrich's mother tells her son that they're going to Toyland. Heinrich wants to go with them, has a bag packed, and listens for their departure. His mother realizes he's joined them, and her resolve becomes more urgent. Will she arrive in time to save Heinrich?

Long-time friends Paul and Fiete are two traditional fishermen in a rapidly changing world. Of the long-established seafarers in their small Baltic Sea village, which the overzealous mayor wants to turn into a tourist stronghold, they are the last ones who still go out to sea every day. However, when Paul finds out by chance one day that Fiete, not he, is the biological father of his son Piet, their close friendship suddenly seems to come to an abrupt end. From then on, the two of them come up with more and more nasty things to make life difficult for the other. Piet, who has returned to his home country and is completely unaware of the situation, ends up in the middle of this petty war.

General Heinz Büchner is in charge of a special unit of the German army. His son Christopher is a member of the unit. They get the mission to take out a band of terrorists that plan an attack on the American headquarters in Heidelberg.