The story of Jewish counterfeiter Salomon Sorowitsch, who was coerced into assisting the Nazi operation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II.

Rolf Köster has been working as a cashier in a small bank branch for years. Every day passes like the day before. He has a thirteen-year-old daughter who would rather write in a diary than speak and a six-year-old son who has to wear a bicycle helmet because he is constantly banging his head against walls. His wife organizes the whole family life, and Rolf stays in the background. But he has doubts as to whether he, who has "everything", is really happy. Then Rolf is unexpectedly given a week's vacation. He decides not to tell his family and to leave the house as usual. Rolf Köster begins to lead a double life.

On the eve of the German Peasants' Revolt, painter Joerg Ratgeb is occupied by a crisis of his own: finding a model for a Christ figure. He sets off on a journey to consult with his artistic role model, Albrecht Dürer. Although Ratgeb has always tried to stay out of the political conflict, his journey brings him face-to-face with peasant revolutionaries and the brutality and violence of their daily lives.

Germany, Baltic Sea coast, May 1945, a few days before the end of World War II. A small Soviet patrol arrives at an isolated house where an elderly baroness gives shelter to a group of orphan girls and a boy who is determined to continue the fight.

Marie (25) is a young, penniless mother trapped in a life she never wanted for herself. When she saves the life of adrenaline junkie Erich (30), she is fascinated by him. Erich introduces Marie to the world of showmen and takes her on a hunt for an intense life. The beginning of an intoxicating love that confronts Marie with an important decision.

Vinz is in the middle of his A-levels and thus in the early stages of a new phase in his life, which presents him with major challenges. As the top scorer at Phoenix Hagen, the success of the upcoming final game is in his hands. He has what it takes to become a professional basketball player and his brother Georg, who is twelve years older, can't imagine anything better for Vinz's life. After all, his own basketball career failed ten years ago after the tragic death of his parents due to the stresses and strains of his private life. Now Vinz is supposed to make up for what Georg was denied back then. But does Vinz even want to? He has been secretly applying for a scholarship in the USA for months, although the idea of leaving his two old friends Samy and Ali behind is difficult for him. When Vinz falls in love with Kathi, he is even less sure of his own plans. The final match for promotion to the 1st Bundesliga will not only decide the future of Phoenix Hagen.

Willi Kritz earns his living as a night watchman and corpse washer at the East German Pathological Institute at the Berlin Clinic. In the process, he found another source of income: he steals pathological exhibits and smuggles them to West Berlin disguised as a Berlin bear. His customer is Frundsberg, and the delivery always takes place in his Yankee sleigh.

In a hospital in Hamburg, an unidentified woman is disconnected from the life-support system. While the investigators search for the mysterious perpetrator, two more men are murdered.

In September 1974, at the Bösebrücke border crossing between East and West Germany, Heike and Ulrich Molitor, along with their two little children, are caught trying to escape to the West. As a punishment the parents are presented with a terrible decision: they will be permitted to leave for West Germany with their seven-year-old son Klaus, but their two-year-old daughter Miriam must remain in East Germany and will be given up for adoption. If the Molitors refuse these conditions, they will both be imprisoned for a year—and both their children will be taken from them. This situation forms the basis for an emotional story in which various destinies in East and West intertwine, reaching a dramatic climax with the fall of the Berlin Wall.