Stefan Butzmühlen

Theres and Kenneth are both young when they first meet whilst on holiday. They fall in love but are unable to prevent themselves from losing each other. Thirty years later, in another country, another couple: Ariane leaves her husband David because she no longer loves him. The paths they both take lead them to Kenneth and Theres.

Marek starts as a trainee on a container ship. It's 197 meters long, 30 meters wide, and bound for Martinique in the Caribbean. Full of anticipation, he leaves his parents' farm in Western Pomerania in Germany and goes on board his ship at Saint-Nazaire in Brittany. Marek wants to find freedom and falls in love with the enigmatic sailor Jean. Will it just be a fling or will it last forever? Does Jean actually have a lover in every port? On his trip across the Atlantic, Marek may not actually become a sailor, but he does grow up. A romantic coming-of-age trip over the Atlantic and a maritime boy's dream about love under the conditions of modern cargo shipping.

As every year Carlos is spending the summer in the country with his family in order to help out with things. Perhaps he won't even be returning to Madrid, as economic prospects are hardly rosy there. In addition, his father's health is failing and he needs Carlos to help. In this town, where the elders still celebrate the medieval rites, Carlos meets a young policeman Juan and they fall in love. A friendship ensues amidst age-old rituals and a crisis of a nation, all this set against a spectacular backdrop which seems somehow not of this world.

Robert lacks direction and seems alienated as a young adult. He meets a handsome man who, though he gives Robert perspective for a moment, alienates him even further.

A family spends three summer days in a beautiful lake mansion close to Berlin. Together with her new lover, Irene visits her brother Alex, who still inhabits the house with Irene's writer son Konstantin. Konstantin's girl-friend pops in, too, and all of them drift away from each other more and more.