In 1967, fate on a North German dike miraculously brings together the Black Forest cuckoo clock maker Gottlieb Dobischauf with his chosen one Leonore. The two marry, start a family and open the first cuckoo clock factory in the North, which achieves considerable success with the company motto "punctuality, precision, perfection".
This TV movie focuses on an average East German citizen, who accidentally becomes a Cold War victim. Shortly before his wedding day, East German Stephan Busemann goes to West Germany to attend his brother Hubert's fiftieth birthday. At the same time, his son Martin and his daughter-in-law Bettina flee their communist home country in a balloon, what Stephan didn't know. As the East Germans believe he helped them to escape, he isn't allowed to return, so Martin writes a letter to the country's leader Erich Honecker. However, now the West Germans think that Stephan is a spy.
Nice gift: Shortly before Christmas loses parcel delivery Wolfgang Paschke the debit card, the driver's license and his job. Famously, he also stumbles on a money bag, but a little later he is gone again. Great excitement before the festival!
Encouraged by Fassbinder, with whom he became friendly after the then-enfant terrible of the German cinema visited him in Lugano, Sirk also did some teaching during the late 1970s at the film school in Munich, where he made three short films with his students.
