In 1930s Berlin, Dr. Jakob Fabian, who works by day in advertising for a cigarette company and by night wanders the streets of the city, falls in love with an actress. As her career begins to blossom, prospects for his future begin to wane.

August 13, 1961: The passengers on the interzonal train from Munich to East Berlin learn 3½ hours before crossing the border that the Wall is being built in Berlin. They have 3½ hours to make a life-changing decision: to get off the train or keep going.

1919. World War I has just ended. Dörte Helm, a young art student in Weimar, follows Walter Gropius’ call and joins the newly-founded Bauhaus school. A love story grows between Gropius and Dörte, adding fuel to the fire of the ensuing scandal threatening the very existence of the Bauhaus; the school of art that would go on to shape the 20th century like no other…

Weimar, 1921. The life of 20-year-old Lotte Brendel seems to be predetermined. Her father sees her as a future wife and mother on the side of a man who is to take over the parental carpentry business. But the idiosyncratic Lotte joins a group of young artists against the will of her family, applies at the Bauhaus and is accepted. The Weimar Bauhaus, under the direction of the visionary Walter Gropius, aspires not only to combine arts and crafts, but also to find the place for the "New Man". In the student Paul Seligmann Lotte finds a supporter and her great love.

A woman goes through a weekend full of ups and downs after a shocking diagnose, according to which she has less than a year left to live.

The Congolese Sikumoya faces prejudice and racism on a regular basis. He's accused of not adapting enough to the "German culture" and tries harder. A Neo-Nazi group and his mother-in-law push him to the breaking point. While in a coma, his metamorphosis completes.