On a barren and stormy island, fishing families eke out a meager existence on what they can catch during summer, and what washes ashore during winter. But little has been washing ashore of late, and their situation worsens. Elders recall how twenty years ago, when the lighthouse keeper’s beacon went dark, a cargo ship broke apart on the cliffs. It proved a bountiful accident for the fishermen. Today people on the island view the conscientious lighthouse keepers with evil hungry eyes...

Hamburg, Germany 1934: An executioner is needed. Teetjen makes the biggest mistake of his life. Because his butcher shop is facing bankruptcy, he agrees to execute a group of political prisoners for the Nazis. Once this becomes known, Teetjen’s life falls apart.

Professor Sonnenbruck is a scientist who is not particularly interested in politics. Even the meeting in 1943 with his former assistant Peters does not change him. He does not betray Peters, who has escaped from a concentration camp, but that is already enough for him. But after the war Sonnenrbruck gets into a conflict of conscience. He thought that science was finally free of politics again only to find the opposite happening at his university in Göttingen. A medical congress in the GDR brings him together with Peters, who is working on a major research contract there. Sonnenbruck decides to visit Peters.

After World War II, scores of refugees leave in search of a new home. They now stand in the hall of a large mansion, waiting to receive their deeds of ownership for sections of land that the lord of the manor had left behind after he fled. Among them is young Jeruscheit who, during her travels, had to bury one of her own children. Her husband has been declared missing, and up until now she has had little purpose in life. But then she discovers it: to work, to build, and to help others. And maybe someday Jeruscheit will find her family.

A young woman moves to Berlin to work as a press photographer.

Vera Meiners' life was sweet but unfortunately for her, it was not to last. Her husband, Jan, left her after she met a former lover in a harmless friendly meeting. Forced to resume her disrupted medical career, she worked in a Swiss clinic but, without the knowledge of the chief surgeon, Vera ordered a risky operation to be performed and was thereafter fired. Penniless, she then works in Spanish nightclubs in order to provide for herself and her child. After many years, she runs into her friend Frank again in one of these nightclubs...

The cashier, Jürgen Borb, has already worked for 10 years at Dadag in Hamburg and is an example for customer service and company loyalty. His professionalism are matched by the trust of his employers, who, while relating to him in an acceptable manner professionally, desire no closer contact with him outside of the workplace. When Borb suddenly disappears one day, Dadag's directors and Borb's colleagues are surprised. They become even more surprised when they soon discover that Borb has embezzled well over a million marks from the firm. His stepsister, Mette, doesn't believe that her stepbrother is an embezzler. In the meantime, she has fallen in love with a criminal investigator, who, she believes, is simply exploiting her affections to get to Borb. Then one day, the criminal investigator finds a body in the cellar of a house Borb rented under a false name and this man created a phony ID card for Borb, identifying him as a resident of a South American country.

Four graduates of an industrial design school team up and form a small business. The protagonist is so excited by the venture that she turns down the proposal of her dashing instructor. Time passes and her three partners lose interest in the business for different reasons. This leaves the heroine who has a change of heart and decides to forgo the business and marry the instructor after all.

In a made-up country somewhere in northern Europe: In the armaments factory F.N.G., an important drawing is copied and passed on to the enemy. Suspicion falls on the chief engineer Alexander Nica and his assistant Laurenz. Both are placed before the court; accused by the night watchman Bruns; and sentenced to death for industrial espionage. Before sentencing, however, Nica succeeds in getting away. Now he’s trying to find proof to convince the court of his and Laurenz’ innocence.

Yvette is the daughter of a courtesan who serves men of wealth and status. She is unaware of how her mother makes money and why they are always in the presence of princes, dukes and barons. Only when Yvette goes away on a holiday she realizes that the Banker Saval is engaging her mother in such activities, she suddenly feels dirty.