Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervour, the boys enthusiastically march into a war they believe in. But once on the Western Front, they discover the soul-destroying horror of World War I.
The first part, "A New World", tells how the young German engineer Karl May comes to America and starts to work for a railway company in the Wild West. Under dramatic circumstances, he meets Apache chief Winnetou and becomes friends with him and his tribe. The Apaches give it the name Old Shatterhand. Together they fight now against the unscrupulous henchmen of the railway company, who wants to lay a route through the Indian area.
Two very different brothers: Gregor (32) and Pietschi (30). Whereas one is reliable and committed, the other is spontaneous and aimless. Gregor is married and is a good doctor; Pietschi in contrast is something of a ladies’ man and a hedonist. According to tradition, the two see each other at least once a year for a weekend of sailing. But this year Pietschi drops out without leaving a message, and simply disappears. Gregor’s life goes on, but he is confused and searches everywhere for a sign of his brother’s whereabouts. The more Gregor realises how little he knows about his brother, the more he becomes fascinated by these things he doesn't know. And the longer Pietschi remains missing, the more obsessed Gregor becomes with his brother’s fading echo, even going so far as to try and slip into his brother’s life. But what happens when one of them suddenly disappears from the mirror image? Can the other continue to be the person they are. Or rather, were?
A man named Seligman finds a fainted wounded woman in an alley and he brings her home. She tells him that her name is Joe and that she is nymphomaniac. Joe tells her life and sexual experiences with hundreds of men since she was a young teenager while Seligman tells about his hobbies, such as fly fishing, reading about Fibonacci numbers or listening to organ music.
Woyzeck takes psychotropic drugs and punishes himself physically. He has no choice. It's his living. With what he earns selling his body and by working in a restaurant and in subway tunnels, he just about makes ends meet. Coming home to his wife Marie and his infant child, he’s an impotent wreck -- and definitely unable to afford the earrings he sees Marie wearing one day. She’s frustrated and the jewelry is a gift from the local pimp. Woyzeck wasn't supposed to find out. But he has. Plagued by voices, he loses his already weak grip on reality. He retreats into the tunnels with Marie and the baby. There Woyzeck is the master of life and death.
A woman disappears mysteriously in the middle of a forest. Police begins his search, in addition to her husband, a forensic expert. When officers asked to provide them with a photograph of the missing, he discovers that someone has entered her house and stole all the images of women.
