Oona's parents are expectant and a little nervous before the first meeting with the daughter's new partner. But when the couple finally shows up, they are very surprised, and the dinner develops into something completely different than what they expected.
Franziska Dreyer and Sebastian Pauli are a happy couple. When one day the police arrest her boyfriend on suspicion of murder, Franziska assumes it's a mistake. But in a trial marked by circumstantial evidence, Sebastian is tried, convicted and sentenced to life. Franziska believes he's innocent and fights to get him released. This puzzles her parents and friends who advise her to cut all ties to him. Her reaction is to marry Sebastian in prison. Then Franziska discovers completely unknown sides to her husband and now doesn't know who or what to believe any more.
It is the summer of 1984 in Schmalenstedt, in the middle of Holstein Switzerland, directly on the Baltic Sea. The 17-year-old Malte Ahrens, who calls himself Roddy Dangerblood, lives with his elderly parents in a farmhouse, is trained as a potter and has discovered for himself the punk that has made its way into Schmalenstedt with some delay.
Eberswalde, dying industrial city of forty thousand souls just 50 miles East Berlin. Johanna lives in that hopeless place. She lives refusing herself the dreams of following in the footsteps of her father, a boxer. Her irascible character makes her lose job after job and training in the gym where women are nothing but a nuisance. She perseveres supported by the love of a wonderful boy and the intelligence of a woman who knows that beautiful women are not necessarily stupid.
A Greek father, estranged from his German wife, kidnaps his daughter from her busy career mother in Berlin, and brings her home to live with his family. An international custody battle follows.