The architect Daniel Brenner is in his late thirties when he receives his first challenging and lucrative commission: to design a cultural center for a satellite town in East-Berlin. He accepts the offer under the condition that he gets to choose who he works with. This way, he reunites with former colleagues and friends - most of them architects or students of architecture who have since chosen a different profession due to personal restraint or economic confinement. Together, they develop a concept which they hope will be more appealing to the public than the conventional and dull constructions common to the German Democratic Republic. However, their ambitious plans are once and again foiled by their conservative supervisors. As frustration grows, Daniel has trouble keeping his career in balance with his family-life: his wife Wanda wants to leave for West-Germany.

Paul Schulte takes a spa stay on the Baltic Sea to have his heart condition treated. His wife Barbara accompanies him and finds interest in the valuable art objects in a nearby church. Together with her accomplice and lover Klaus Grunow, she plans to break into the church. But Paul Schulte sees through his wife's plans and tries to dissuade her. One morning, Paul Schulte is found dead.

The story of a 14-year-old boy's problems. Unable to overcome his parents' divorce, Steffen mutates into a "failure" and has to repeat year 7 at school. His mother and teachers are helpless and disappointed in the boy. He remains withdrawn from them and builds his own world by escaping to an old tower where he secretly writes poetry. Franziska, one of Steffen's classmates, is very fond of him and stands up for him; she fights for Steffen's fair treatment. Then the friendship between the two young people is put to the test by the boy's mistrust.

Hella and Günter want to have a baby, but it doesn't work out. With a few beers in the crown, Günter has the idea that saves the day: why shouldn't his friend Norbert try to inseminate him? Hella, however, is not so easy to persuade to have an affair.