The story of Karin and Mike. They work at Perla, a washing machine manufacturer. She is a career woman, he is on the assembly line and plays for the factory soccer team. The company is owned by an American corporation. Until now it has been business as usual, but all of a sudden comes the news that 400 redundancies are needed if Perla is to survive. Suddenly, there is everything to play for.

A strange family: 17-year-old Phil lives with his mother and twin sister in an old mansion on the outskirts of town. When he returns from summer camp, the mood in the mansion has soured somehow. Phil doesn’t worry about it, hanging out with his best friend Kat instead. When he starts to feel attracted to a mysterious new student at school, Phil is plunged into emotional turmoil only exacerbated by the trouble at home.

On a freezing November night, a young doctor accidentally runs over and kills an 18-year old boy. The criminal investigation is quickly dropped, but the mysterious circumstances of the accident leave behind many unanswered questions.

This is a family story that covers thirty years in the life of the Freytag family (narrated by the grandson, Robert). When his grandfather returns from Russia in 1949, he becomes part of the German "economic miracle" by producing garden gnomes. Klaus, Robert's father, wants to become a writer. He marries Gisela who almost immediately gets pregnant with Robert - but the marriage doesn't work. Both parents abandon the child, and Robert goes on living with both pairs of grand parents. While his father belongs to the 1968 generation that rebels against their fathers he falls in love with the neighbor's's daughter Laura.

Christa is approaching her forties and has already been through a lot. She has high hopes for her relationship with Dieter, who, like her, is divorced. As she also gets on well with his children Andi and Marion, it's not long before Christa and her ten-year-old daughter move in with Dieter and their new family happiness seems complete - until Dieter brings his lover Kati home.

Saniye is offered a career advancement by her boss as a wedding present. But instead of being happy, the previously modern young woman suddenly feels the need to become a mother. Her fiancé Tom is not enthusiastic about Saniye's reproductive instinct. The two of them suddenly embark on a fatal journey into the all-promising, passionless world of fertility medicine, with their relationship falling by the wayside.

At the latest when Helga crashes through the floor of her living room, she realizes that she is stuck. It's been two years since her husband left her for another woman, but she's still angry and hurt. Everything changes when her cleaning lady goes on vacation and sends Polish worker Ryszard to replace her. Initially the target of Helga's resentment himself, Ryszard soon becomes her confidant. Although they don't speak the same language, Helga feels understood. In the safety of their own four walls, the two grow closer. But when Helga's family and friends find out about her secret, she finds it difficult to admit her feelings for Ryszard, who doesn't fit in at all with the usual image of masculinity in her milieu. Will Helga sacrifice her young, late happiness to social conventions?