After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds a traumatized ex-soldier living in her apartment in bombed out Berlin. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.

As the end of the Second World War approaches and the Soviet Red Army is advancing, a group of concentration camp inmates is helped to escape by a Polish doctor. They hide in a wood where they meet other fugitives, who have been there for months, constantly in fear of being discovered. Out of fear of the German army patrols, they do not dare to leave the forest, even as the food supplies run low.

The young Robert looking for work and room in Bavaria. Because Robert dares to take a young girl with him to his place, he loses his apartment and the job as an assistant to a bookseller.

Andreas Baader starts out as a small-time criminal. In Berlin, he is recruited by a revolutionary cell. They plan to overthrow the state.

Early 18th-century Krakow: The poor student Simon works as a travelling musician in order to finance his studies, and the Polish freedom fighter Jan is on the run from Saxon troops. They meet in the carriage of Count Kovalska, where they fall in love with the Count’s daughters Laura and Bronislava.

Captain Harms still suffers from the bomb attack on his ship. He can not put up with sitting on land, but is afraid of take to the sea. Slowly he is becoming more and more frustrated and gradually falls into alcohol addiction.