In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

Germany in the Thirties. A movie teller realizes that his profession is not longer needed. Silent movies are not produced any longer. Telling stories is the only thing the man was ever good in, so he does not know what to do now. As political circumstances are changing dramatically these days in Germany, he gets new hope that things will again be going better for him...

It all starts with a bang. The car breaks through the crash barrier and falls off the bridge. The lights go out. After that, he is not able to see anymore. His optic nerve is severed, from now on the young stage-director Jakob is blind. His life will change and nothing will ever be the same. Jakob cannot handle the idea of never being able to see again and screams at the only woman who is able and willing to help him, Lily. A rehabilitation teacher, she helps the blind deal with the darkness. Lily has been living with it since birth, she too is blind.

Heinz Strunk, plagued by crater-like skin rashes, lives with his sick mother in Hamburg-Harburg in the 1980s. As a saxophonist, he tours the North German lowlands with the dance combo "Tiffanys". In this bizarre universe of Korn, Klaus & Klaus and Koteletts, bandleader Gurki teaches him how to deliver cheerful, upbeat music. To escape the vicious circle of shooting festivals and village weddings, Heinz wants to start a solo career and become a hit producer...

During World War II, Switzerland severely limited refugees: "Our boat is full." A train from Germany halts briefly in an isolated corner of Switzerland. Six people jump off seeking asylum: four Jews, a French child, and a German soldier. They seek temporary refuge with a couple who run a village inn. They pose as a family: the deserter as husband, Judith as his wife, an old man from Vienna as her father, his granddaughter and the French lad, whom they beg to keep silent, as their children. Judith's teenage brother poses as a soldier. The fabrication unravels through chance and the local constable's exact investigation. Whom will the Swiss allow to stay? Who gets deported?

Welcome to 2020: The European Union has collapsed following the fourth Gulf War and massive barricades keep illegal immigrants out of cities that are barely functioning. In the middle of this highly volatile environment is the family of Walter Kuper, an energy conglomerate executive. Walter’s daughter, Cecilia, has joined the Black Storm terrorist group. Her sister Laura must choose between motherhood and the man she loves; their brother Philip has been called up to fight for Germany in a hopeless war to secure the last remaining oil fields. Starring leading actors Daniel Brühl, Johanna Wokalek and Jürgen Vogel, "The Days to Come" asks provocative questions about the current state of things as it depicts personal and political realities in a scarily believable near–future.

The engineer Rosalie leads a life without standing still. She doesn't feel old for a long time, only mature. When Rosalie returns to Germany after a fainting spell at a solar project in Africa, it's just supposed to be a breather. When she shows up at her bourgeois sister Margret's with a huge container, she is not very enthusiastic about the surprise visit. The retired teacher sees right through that Rosalie isn't staying with her voluntarily. The well-travelled woman is broke! It seems like a miracle that there are a huge chunk of banknotes in a hole in the wall of the room. On the other side of the wall there is the room of the highly talented high school graduate Karla, who rents a part of Margret's house with her father Harald. After a failed first meeting, Rosalie befriends with the wheelchair-bound teenager and sets her mind on getting Karla out of her sheltered isolation, even against her will.

A family of a German linguist lives with an indigenous tribe in Papua New Guinea.

Three people rob a bank to help a day care center that's in debt. Wolf is captured, Werner identified, police suspect Christa is the third. She and Werner ask Hans, a clergyman, to launder the money and give it to the kindergarten. He refuses. They try Ingrid, Christa's friend, who tries to help, but the school rejects the money. When tragedy strikes Werner, Hans helps Christa bolt to a collective in Portugal. Ingrid visits her; their relationship makes the collective nervous, so she returns to Germany and ceases living in hiding. The police are still looking for her and so is a witness to the robbery, Lena, a bank clerk. Lena's interest brings Christa's second awakening.