To be defeated and not be - a victory. This is the motto that life is guided by three young friends: Alek, Sophy and Rudy. Scouts, high school graduates high school in Warsaw drifting ambitious plans for the future broken through September 1939. Entering adulthood in a very dramatic times, which puts them a choice - to survive at any cost, or to join the fighting for a free homeland, risking everything. The boys brought up in patriotic homes, shaped by the ideals of scouting, they decide to fight. They become soldiers, and although every scrape with death, they can live a full life.

A former East German boxing champion reduced to working as a bouncer and debt collector is forced to reflect on his life when he is diagnosed with a fatal disease.

Strong and independent Eliza works as the Polish teacher in a village school and begins an affair with local delinquent Stach. They have a child out of wedlock. When Stach is sent on forced labourer in Germany, Eliza and her child set off on an epic journey to be reunited with her lover.

Dr. Sonja Martin is a neurosurgeon at a large clinic in Leipzig. She loves her job. But she has bigger plans: She wants to become a clinic director. She pursues this career goal with ambition. But she has lost sight of the important things in life. Sonja gradually realizes this when she involuntarily has to put up her grandchildren Clarissa, Paula and little Benedikt in her apartment for a few days.