A group of kids grow up on the short, wrong (east) side of the Sonnenallee in Berlin, right next to one of the few border crossings between East and West reserved for German citizens. The antics of these kids, their families, of the "West German" friends and relatives who come to visit, and of the East German border guards, all serve to illustrate the absurdity of everyday life on the Sonnenallee, and therefore throughout the former East Germany.

The young Friedrich Schiller begins his life as a poet with a dramatic escape. After the sensational success of his first drama "The Robbers", he deserts from the Duke's army. At the Mannheim Court and National Theatre, he initially receives a friendly reception, but his new play "Fiesko" is not well received by the artistic director Dalberg. In the successful actor and author August Wilhelm Iffland, Schiller finds a strong competitor for the position of in-house playwright and vies with him for the love of the same woman. The young poet's situation becomes increasingly precarious; he has no money, suffers from hunger and falls seriously ill. Nevertheless, he works feverishly for recognition and success with no regard for his own health.

The body of a young Mexican woman is found in the Main Valley, south of Würzburg. Inspector Peter Haller and his colleague Birgit Sacher are involved in solving the crime. Haller is not yet forty and was born in Würzburg. He has a quiet love for his city, for its clarity and familiarity. He will never fully understand how people can become criminals in such a beautiful environment. This is the secret drive behind his investigations, in which he is not just concerned with solving the case, but with looking into the soul of the perpetrator.

A man decides to sell his grandparents' house when he finds out that the death of his parents seems to be connected to a legend about a murdered child.

Laura returns to Chile, after thirty years, to say goodbye to his old and sick mother. In this bitter journey she is accompanied by his daughter Elizabeth, who still did not know her grandmother. When the old woman meets her granddaughter, she decides to change her will and leave the young Elizabeth as heir of the family mansion. When soon after the grandmother dies, Elizabeth examines the inheritance, and discovers with surprise that the mansion was donated to a foundation.

Cowboys in Upper Franconia, a mysterious bookseller and a dead western rider. Inspector Peter Haller has returned to Bamberg after the death of his mother. Together with his colleague Sacher, he gets caught up in a web of erotic entanglements during his latest investigation...

Simpleton is a poor carpenter's apprentice. Everyone makes fun of his naivete. His greatest wish is to make the sad Princess happy. When he gets a Golden Goose as a gift, he resolves to give it to the Princess...

In 1964, young Julia Welling is sent to Bavaria to create and manage a home for children. For the past of her father (a member of the Nazi party) Julia now defends the values of democracy and wants children to be treated like whole persons. Her first days in Bavaria are difficult because the people are very conservative: when she notices some parents beating their children, she steps in and they don't understand her intervention. She meets a young American officer who is organizing the end of US occupation forces in Germany; he helps her get a former military installator for her new children's home. She manages to install the home and begin her activities, but one night a violent farmer tries to burn down the building because she has protected his son.

It should be a relaxed holiday with her daughter Nora - at least that's how the single mother Maren Bogner imagined it: a journey in the footsteps of Winnetou, a ride to the breathtaking locations of the legendary Karl May films, a holiday of discovery in Croatia. Although Nora doesn't share her mother's enthusiasm, a little variety never hurts. They are accompanied by Nora's best friend, the successful but stressed businesswoman Gabriele Hochmann with a GDR past. Arriving at the starting point of their guided "Winne Tour", the three women make the acquaintance of Elisabeth zu Hallbach-Süren, who, together with her young assistant Simone Lehmann, has also set out for the scenes of German cinema nostalgia.