In 1596, the Dutchman Willem Barents sets sail on a long voyage with two ships to find a north-eastern sea route to China for the Amsterdam merchants. Ice masses and storms force the prudent navigator Barents to separate from Rijp, the captain of the second ship, so that he can organize a rescue operation in Holland. Trapped in the polar winter, Barents and his crew hope for help...

The 18-year-old construction worker Schultzendorf, known as Schulle, sets off for Berlin from his home town of Ankershagen. He is taken with the Marzahn construction site. He dreams of making archaeological finds there. He searches every excavator load for treasures, which not only earns him ridicule, but also the anger of his colleagues because he delays the work. They try to change his mind and get him a wife. This fails, but Schulle finds one himself - the slightly older Helga, who needs his help to get away from her divorced husband. Once she has succeeded in doing so, she breaks away from Schulle, whose youthful impetuosity unsettles her.

Fred works as an engineer and a test driver at a car company. His girlfriend Petra is a car mechanic - actually an ideal combination. However, the old-fashioned Fred is less than thrilled about his girlfriend’s "male profession". In his opinion, the masculine job damages her femininity. Since Petra is unwilling to give up her beloved job for such stupid concerns, there is a lot of friction between them. It is not until Petra turns the heads of all the men at a fair that Fred realizes how absurd his objections really are.