The film deals with the criminal case involving Marianne Bachmeier, who shot her daughter's murderer in the courtroom in 1981.

Friedrich manages to escape from East Germany to the West in the 1950s. On his arrival, he is greeted with the words Herzlich Willkommen, or "cordial, heartfelt welcome." However, once he finds employment, what he experiences is anything but a cordial welcome at his new job, where he is a teacher/counselor for "wayward children" located in a former castle. The institution is headed by a former Nazi who runs it with the help of the more criminal, bullying boys. Despite these obstacles, Friedrich manages to establish a rapport with a boy who wants to go "straight," and also begins to have an affair with an attractive female teacher at the school.

Yasemin is a 17-year old Turkish girl who lives with her parents in Hamburg-Altona, Germany. While her mother and father accept that Yasemin has her own German friends, they also expect her to honor the traditions of their country of origin. The arrival of Jan, a German student aged 21, throws this situation into conflict.

The western film that was filmed in Bavaria is located in the Montana Mountains. At the end of the 19th century, an Indian Boy called Tschetan meets the shepherd Alaska in the Montana Mountains. Alaska prevents him from being hanged as a cattle thief but from then on engages him as a deputy shepherd and forces him to do hard work. But when they have to fight against a powerful stock farmer together, they eventually become friends.