Witta Pohl

In Paris, Maxi Ardel, in her elegant forties, successfully and firmly runs a haute couture house bearing her name. In Florence, she is about to take over a textile company that belonged to an old Italian aristocratic family, the di Falco. She has, indeed, a revenge to take on them. Count Massimo di Falco had stolen her child twenty years earlier. Driven by a desire for revenge, Maxi wants to destroy this family at all costs, but she has to count on Countess Bianca, who is ready to defend herself from her former rival. From then on, the two women fight without mercy.

Skoda is the son of a wealthy, overbearing banker and rather than put up with his father to keep a privileged lifestyle, he has chosen to ditch the relationship and drive a taxi for a living. The film follows Skoda on his nightly rides through the city, and though different characters come and go, Skoda meets a kindred spirit in the form of a teenage woman who finds her own home life equally difficult to shoulder. The two young people are gradually attracted to each other, and they end up one night in Skoda's room together. At that moment, the older woman that Skoda had been involved with opens the door and discovers his infidelity. Skoda is living in her house and driving the taxi she gave him -- her commitment was abundantly clear from the beginning. Pushed over the edge, the older woman commits suicide -- and Skoda is blamed for her death by her ex-husband. He swears to avenge her, and the hunt for Skoda begins.

Действие фильма, как и романа, начинается в канун мировой войны и кончается в середине 1960-х годов. В центре повествования — извращенная по милости нацистов немецкая история и сломанные человеческие судьбы. Все герои романа — люди, протестующие против существующего миропорядка.

Willi is 18 years old and lives on the street. Without a goal in his life he walks around the city and meets several people, helping but also cheating him. When he meets a girl, Monica, he realizes that there are people out there whose lives are even more desperate than his. So he's trying to help her (and him) by planning a great robbery on a supermarket's money transporter.

Detective Heinz Ebeling's (Peter Eschberg) car breaks down with a broken windshield and a defective fuel pump on the way to Frankfurt. On the way to the next village, Ebeling witnesses a murder and other crimes, which he tries to solve.