Told in flashback, the film recounts the events leading up to the killing of good-for-nothing Curt Jurgens. Warned by her friends and relatives that Jurgens is a bad job, impulsive Ina Kahr marries him anyway. His ceaseless philandering and abuse wears away at Ina to the point that she contemplates poisoning her husband...
Germany in the post-war period. Due to the circumstances of the time and his lack of prospects, the young Bimbo has become a hoodlum who keeps his head above water with petty crime. One night he robs the writer Percy, but is picked up by the police shortly afterwards in a drunken state. As he has Percy's wallet with him, the police think he is the robber and take him to his address. Percy can hardly believe his eyes when he sees the robber again. But instead of handing him over to the police, he takes Bimbo under his wing and tries to make a better person out of him - not an easy task.
An Englishman has been working in the US so long he now speaks with an American accent. He is drafted into the British Army during WWII but is injured and loses his memory. Because he talks like an American, the doctors repatriate him to the States where he is housed with a New York family. After the war they all travel throughout Europe, searching for the women he still remembers in the hope of restoring his lost memory