Part satire, part drama, this movie tells the story of Anton Paulisch (Herb Andress), who has been living and working as an actor in Rome. When he hears that his mother is mortally ill, he returns to Munich to be at her bedside, but doesn't quite make it. He and sister Astrid (Elke Haltaufderheide) rediscover their friendship, though, as they go through a number of crises. Meanwhile, Anton makes an effort to find work in Munich, and runs headlong into the silliness and pretensions of the "New German Cinema" movement.
The architect Stefan Hellwig is to plan the construction of a housing estate for a hard stone factory in Tyrol. As his landlord Meier from Dortmund is on his way to Africa with his family, he gets a cheap ride to Tyrol. There, the Meiers are initially forced to make a stopover because their daughter Babsi is weak. While they finally abandon their plans for Africa to spend their vacation in Tyrol, the budding romance between Stefan and the local vet Karin seems to come to an abrupt end when she finds out why he is in Tyrol.
A group of German boys are ordered to protect a small bridge in their home village during the waning months of the second world war. Truckloads of defeated, cynical Wehrmacht soldiers flee the approaching American troops, but the boys, full of enthusiasm for the "blood and honor" Nazi ideology, stay to defend the useless bridge. The film is based on a West German anti-war novel of the same name, written by Gregor Dorfmeister.
Hamburg, Germany, 1944, during World War II. A serial killer terrorizes the city. When it seems clear that the local police are unable to catch him, forces as dark and terrible as the criminal himself become involved in the case.