Magdalena and Michael have loved each other since they were children. But when the Nazis come to power, Michael rebels against the regime and is sentenced to fifteen years in a concentration camp. Magdalena, meanwhile, goes underground with the help of a friend and later immigrates to the Soviet Union. Michael, who has joined the Red Army, discovers on the way to Moscow that Magdalena is staying there. But when his plane lands, she is already on her way back to Germany. Michael hopes that one day, he and Magdalena will be reunited.

In the mid-1950s, mayor Zwischenzahl is killed on the day of his inauguration in a West German town. The killer is Ruth Bodenheim, a Jewish woman, who wanted to avenge the death of her parents. Zwischenzahl, a former SA member, was apparently involved in the deportation of her parents to a concentration camp during the war. Ruth cannot bear the horrible events and the death of her parents and wants to open the eyes of the town′s residents.

Nina Kern, a divorced woman in her late twenties, will soon be fully deprived of her custody rights for her three children, who already reside in a home for the displaced due to Nina’s many years of willful neglect. Although she has broken her promise to change her moral conduct many times, she is given one last chance on probation.

Christine is tired of life. When her retirement home roommate abducts her for a night in the Hamburg red-light district, she is confronted with a flashy and entertaining world that she feels way to old old for.

The Flensburg vocational school is in a crisis mood: unless a miracle happens at the open day, the gastronomy class is threatened with extinction! Principal Katharina and her teaching staff have to come up with an idea to get the necessary registrations. What could be more obvious than relying on the show talent of guest lecturer Erik? The food blogger's idea of processing a beef from head to tail promises to be a live spectacle. However, the free spirit goes it alone. Without consulting the structured director, he invites her sister, celebrity chef Antje Beringer, to be his star guest! Now Katharina, who has broken up with her, has to face an involuntary reunion.

Katharina Hendriks loves her job as headmistress of a vocational school. However, cutbacks threaten to spoil her job, as does the arrival of her brother Erik as a guest teacher. Their visions clash and this has consequences not only for the atmosphere, but also for the pupils.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was the author of Werther, the romantic novel that was transformed into a play during Goethe's lifetime and which initiated the whole German romantic movement. The book's story tells of young love and suicide. In this East German film, based on a book by Thomas Mann, Lotte (Lilli Palmer) was the woman who served as the model for the heroine in the novel Werther. She comes to Goethe's hometown for a visit, and her experiences there eerily re-create episodes from the book. Goethe comes across as a pompous old bore, and his friends as pandering sycophants, in this very proper communist party-sponsored, anti-heroic movie.

Eight-year-old Christian lives with his grandparents after the death of his mother. When his grandmother falls ill, grandfather Meschka wants to take the boy to live with his aunt at the Baltic Sea. But Christian is against it. On the trip, the two develop a new relationship that changes everything.