A department store security guard is secretly in love with a clerk in the store's bookshop. When he witnesses a seeming rival being attacked in the train, he gets off instead of helping him. Not being able to deal with his bad conscience, his formerly controlled life breaks down.
18-year-old school boy Helmut falls in love with fellow pupil Britta. He starts working for a Peace movement to get to know Britta. Britta, however, suddenly moves to San Francisco to live with her father and whilst there, finds a new boyfriend. Helmut studies, literature and politics in his home town and have a relationship with another girl from his former school, now studying medicine at the same university but they break up after having an affair with her roommate. Helmut begins a lot of short affairs with different women but still searches for his first girl.
