A German stage actor finds unexpected success and mixed blessings in the popularity of his performance in a Faustian play as the Nazis take power in pre-WWII Germany. As his associates and friends flee or are ground under by the Nazi terror, the popularity of his character supercedes his own existence until he finds that his best performance is keeping up appearances for his Nazi patrons.
Wolf Brandin is in his mid-twenties and lives with his wife and child in East Berlin at the end of the 1950s. In West Berlin, the student of electrical engineering is recruited by the American secret service CIA. But Brandin immediately notifies the State Security of the German Democratic Republic and from then on lives a dangerous life as a double agent. When Brandin reaches the breaking point, his marriage starts to unravel because Brandin is not allowed to tell his family about his double life.
Three couples want to spend a short break together. Some have a traffic accident, the others are prevented professionally. So the designer Robert and the youth helper Ellen are forced to spend the days in a remote farmhouse alone with her young son. The previously suppressed marriage crisis breaks open. Allegations, confessions, charges, self-accusations are in the room. Painfully, they come to the realization that only their own happiness is responsible for their happiness. With the old landlord, each of them finds himself. In the end, Robert and Ellen want to try a new beginning.
Heinz is a well-stocked veterinarian in Klückow and his Jana in quite firm, although not always present hands. And now - as Aunt Alma is slowly getting rid of the concern for her beloved nephew - Dr. Kröpelin finally got his chance: he makes a marriage proposal to Alma. She would not be averse if it had not been his "bloodthirsty" hobby, the hunt. A get-together on the high seat is still not a desirable prospect for Alma. But the more she refuses, the tighter Kröpelin bites into his intention to marry her anyway, whatever the cost.
