Due to complicity in a robbery raid the young Ursula comes to a detention center, in which the education is hard since she is considered a serious offender. In a joint outbreak, she gains the respect of the other girls.

A moving saga focusing on the women in a family that spans three generations and almost 70 years of German history, from the Wilhelmine period through the end of WWII. This film shows that it takes a combination of hard work, political consciousness and family work in tandem to face the tragedies of war, economic hardship and death.