In a small town, everyone has tried to forget what happened shortly after WWII. That is, until a stranger finds a book that Jadup gave to the young refugee, Boel, over 30 years ago. Painful memories of the period after the war and of Boel and her sudden disappearance begin to surface.
Fall 1989: Jan is almost 16. Caught while trying to escape to West Germany, he is transferred from prison to a juvenile detention center. Here, he meets Jana … and what starts as a bet, becomes true love. When Jana gets pregnant, the situation spirals out of control.
Individual GDR citizens share the responsibility for improving their own daily lives and the life of the community as a whole, an attitude which has lead to a national community improvement campaign.
Ten-year-old Toni is a little scatterbrained, so his parents warn him to take extra good care of his little sister Rita on their first solo train trip to their grandmother in Bamsdorf. But of course Toni doesn't pay attention and gets off at the wrong station, leaving Rita behind in the train.
Little Tim Tammer, the son of a lighthouse keeper, lives right on the Baltic Sea beach, but his remote home often leaves him feeling lonely. When Young Pioneers pitch their tents nearby, he is overjoyed and quickly makes new friends.
High-school senior Peter considers the adults around him to be hypocritical, self-congratulatory and immersed in the past. He gets suspended for writing an essay that his teachers see as a challenge to the state.
Susanne (17) and Robert (18) want to get married, but because Susanne is still under-aged, she needs parental permission. With twin babies and tight finances, the newlyweds soon feel overwhelmed, and dealing with everything makes them forget the love that originally brought them together.
With the arrival of twins, the Blaschke family grows from four to six and they don't really fit into their "Trabi" anymore. To solve the problem, father Hannes acquires a used official limousine.