On the way to summer camp, eleven-year-old Lena develops a crush on Wolfgang, but Antonia is interested in him too. Although Lena and Wolfgang grow closer to each other, camp director Eichler disapproves of their relationship and tries to split them up by assigning them to different groups.
Mathias is eight and lives with his divorced mother in East Berlin. One day, he pays his father a surprise visit. When he opens the door, his father is confused—and Mathias notices that a strange woman is there.
When 13-year-old Bernd moves from Rostock to the little town of Fichtenhainigen, he lands in the difficult position of being the new kid at school.
At a West German high school near the small town of Benderath, a group of boys band together and create a secret club called the "Trojans." Their Jewish classmate Jakob is mocked as a "enemy of the state" and "cowardly Oriental" by the fascist teacher Paecker.
The king has captured the dangerous and thick-skinned Iron Hans and the penalty for setting him free is death. Iron Hans eventually persuades the young prince Joachim to release him and the two run away and live in hiding in the forest.
Twelve-year-old Isabel and her mother, a famous political singer in Chile, fled their home country after the 1973 military coup. Isabel’s father stayed behind, fighting in the underground resistance movement.