When mobile nurse Esma finds one of her patients dead, the strictly timed schedule of her day is thrown off balance. Between professional ethics and family obligations, she is faced with a difficult decision.
In 1985, in Communist Romania, the thirty year-old Irene falls deeply in love with a German, Franz. When Franz leaves Romania, Irene decides to follow him to Berlin to be with him. After her arrival, Irene gradually comes to realize that Franz no longer wants to be with her.
A coming-of-age story set in Germany in the 1960s. Siggi becomes involved in a love triangle when he falls for Luise, but the tightening political climate forces him to make a fateful decision.
East-Berlin, 1961, shortly after the erection of the Wall. Konrad, Sophie and three of their friends plan a daring escape to Western Germany. The attempt is successful, except for Konrad, who remains behind. From then on, and for the next 28 years, Konrad and Sophie will attempt to meet again, in spite of the Iron Curtain. Konrad, who has become a reputed Astrophysicist, tries to take advantage of scientific congresses outside Eastern Germany to arrange encounters with Sophie. But in a country where the political police, the Stasi, monitors the moves of all suspicious people (such as Konrad's sister Barbara and her husband Harald), preserving one's privacy, ideals and self-respect becomes an exhausting fight, even as the Eastern block begins its long process of disintegration.
