Marie thinks to return to her job one year after the birth of her daughter Nora. Her husband Holger is already looking forward to two-month parental leave in which he wants to be totally there for her daughter. Her daughter? They rush into an emotional hell without warning. The youth welfare office informs them that their child has been swapped in the clinic. Sandra, the other mother with the exchanged and actually biological child of theirs, is a single-parent student. While Sandra outwardly comparatively seems to handle it with ease, Marie is completely overwhelmed. Sandra's life situation leads to a dispute with Holger, because Marie can not accept that "her" daughter should grow up with a poor single parent. When the press also gets wind of the matter, there is no turning back: The children must be exchanged.
The main character Otto, the "best man", is a copy of the illustrious Mister Bean. He takes on an apprenticeship as a building-worker, which makes him a member of a building brigade. At the same time Otto tries to start a love affair, which he handles even clumsier. Never the less Otto makes progress with the lady in question, a single mother, who apparently doesn't mind. Actually he wanted her sister, but a retired Leninist party member changes his mind. This gives him the courage to persevere in his work, albeit with the helping hand of the obligatory retired party member. And behold, in the end Otto invents a new method of building, which saves the brigade many hours of work.
Nina Kern, a divorced woman in her late twenties, will soon be fully deprived of her custody rights for her three children, who already reside in a home for the displaced due to Nina’s many years of willful neglect. Although she has broken her promise to change her moral conduct many times, she is given one last chance on probation.
The crew of a small Saßnitz fisherman has problems with the "making a cultural socialist life". In order not to lose the competition prize again in the future, they want to show the organizer a collective weekend with all the trimmings. And they really do not mind ...