Rüdiger Kirschstein

A countess loves her brother's Prussian-officer friend in the 1919 Baltic area.

A mature, rich and bored woman called Elisabeth is taking a ride with the “Rheingold”, a first-class high-speed train of the seventies along the river Rhine. In the train she is meeting her old school mate and lover who is working as a waiter and falls in love with him again. Her husband, a busy politician, realizes what’s going on and tries to catch the train to face his wife and her lover in a fatal showdown.

Horst Wolland is a welder in Berlin who tries to move up the career ladder to better provide for his family. He is on the verge of being promoted when the working conditions worsen, triggering a strike. Wolland stays out of it, but he also refuses to tell his manager who the strike leader is, so he is not promoted. Wolland understands what solidarity means and tries to organize another strike.

Various interwoven stories about women of different ages and life situations, each dealing with encounters, relationships, and expectations of love and life paths. The focus is on female characters who, each in their own way, are at a crossroads in their lives: whether through a surprising acquaintance, a disturbing announcement, a new romance, or an encounter with a mysterious gentleman who challenges old certainties.

In the last days of WW2, the German minesweeper MX12 is on its way into the enemy’s zone to pick up wounded soldiers. When a radio message proclaims the end of war, the crew demands to break off the risky mission. Only the captain wants to continue.

A young, easygoing pilot discovers the mutual attraction between his chief pilot's wife and himself. The two become lovers, and are nearly discovered on several occasions. However, when the wife becomes pregnant, her husband has reason to believe he is not the father and, indeed, that the culprit is the young pilot. He arranges for the young man to have an unfortunate accident, and all proceeds as if nothing had happened.