German students compete to enter one of the country's elite schools.

Four teenage friends - Frank, Spüli, Mücke, and Pommes - try to have their first contact with the opposite gender. Not so easy in the Ruhr region of the 80s. Attempts at dancing and being in a band go wrong, and their parents and teachers can't help with that, so the four teens need to get creative.

A French teacher makes a startling discovery while on a trip to Buchenwald.

The former bank robber Wanja is released from a long prison sentence. As her feelings of loneliness escalate, Wanja sets out to find work and hereby a new identity. Against all odds she lands an internship at a horse race track. In the stable she gets to know the troubled teenager Emma, and a strong friendship develops between the two women. When Emma slips deeper into her own drug abuse, Wanja decides to rescue her.

Is. This. My. Son? No matter how often Tobias Wilke poses this question, there's always only one answer: Yes! Tobias, can't believe his eyes when he comes to the airport to pick up his 17-year-old son Finn – and learns that Finn is now calling herself Helen and wearing girls' clothes. Finn/Helen reveals that she's always was a girl, and that she used her year abroad in San Francisco to pass the "everyday life" test. This is required by law for everyone preparing for the sex reassignment surgery they will undergo upon reaching majority. Reactions from Helen's friends, acquaintances and schoolmates cover the entire gamut from derision to solidarity. Especially Helen's father, a well-known chef, finds it difficult to accept a situation he cannot understand. But Helen nearly always finds the right words - and humor - to counterbalance the ignorance and jeers of those around her. It is the beginning of a long, winding road towards the sexual identity she is convinced is hers.