Hungerjahre is a movie about adolescence in 1950s West Germany, in which director and scriptwriter Jutta Brückner comes to terms with her own memories.

A young married couple - both of them actors - work in the divided city of Berlin. Agnes, the young woman, is on location in East Berlin, and Jochen, her husband, works at the Westend Theater in West Berlin. This young marriage is in danger of breaking up as they vehemently defend their diametrically opposed views. The way they see politics, art and the world differs extremely.

Diederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. His life motto now runs: bow to those at the top and tread on those below. In this way, he always succeeds: as a student in a duel-fighting student fraternity and as a businessman in a paper factory. He cajoles the obese district administrative president Von Wulkow and wins his favor. He slanders his financial rivals and hatches a plot with the social democrats in the town council. On his honeymoon with his rich wife Guste, he finally finds a chance to do his beloved Kaiser a favor. And when a memorial to the Kaiser is unveiled in the town where Diederich lives and works, he delivers the address. He stands behind the lectern in the pouring rain, saluting his Kaiser. The crowd is dispersed. Everything is laid in ruins...