Five musicians form in pre-war Berlin a dance band, which is largely successful thanks to the singer Marion. When love rivalries break out among the musicians and the Second World War begins, they are scattered in all directions. After the war, a coincidence brings them together again.

Otto, a feckless Everyman, tries to adjust to the postwar travails of his defeated nation. Stymied by black-market profiteers and government bureaucrats, Otto begins fantasizing about a happier life at the end of that ever-elusive rainbow.

In unconditional fatherly love, an old shoemaker clings to his son, a spoiled good-for-nothing. After the Filius has ruined the respected shoe shop, he gets further and further down the wrong path without opening his father's eyes.