Theodor Chindler - Die Geschichte einer deutschen Familie

Based on the novel Hohaj by Elisabeth Rynell, it depicts the devastation felt by Elizabeth, a woman who had lost her husband in a car accident and wants to leave her three young children to join him in death by wandering out into the snowy deserts of Lapland. As she wanders through the snow, Elizabeth discovers the story of Aron and Ina, a couple who overcame dark secrets and over-controlling family members to be with each other.

Senator Isaak Kohler shoots and kills Professor Winter in a crowded restaurant, while Winter is dining with the struggling idealistic young lawyer, Felix Spat. Kohler puts up no defense and is sentenced to twenty years. Kohler then gets his daughter Helene to pay the reluctant Spat to reinvestigate the case, on the assumption that Kohler is innocent. The newspapers pick up on this and begin to question whether Kohler was wrongly convicted.

Music student Eva has fallen head over heels in love with musician Jo. They have a burning passion for one another and discover that they are able to communicate without auxiliary means, even across great distances. Their love is so great that Eva even follows her boyfriend into heroin addiction. But now this has to come to an end: Eva is pregnant and the two of them plan to go cold turkey in the solitude of New Zealand.

Ann, a ten-year-old girl, becomes the sole heir of millions from her grandmother. Ann's parents, who are short of money and have lost all hope of a bright future try to manipulate Ann's imagination in such a way that she loses her mind.

Edith runs a left-wing journal and when her marriage starts to fall apart (her husband is unfaithful), she can find no solace in her son who is more of a problem than an asset. On top of heading toward a divorce and being unable to handle her son's asocial tendencies, her neurotic uncle moves in, demanding personalized care. Just to keep her sanity intact, Edith starts writing in her diary to vent her own feelings and ambitions. As her son goes from bad to worse over a five-year period, it turns out that Edith's diary may be of more benefit than she could have ever imagined. In this adaptation of Edith's Diary by Patricia Highsmith, director and writer Hans W. Geissendoerfer has maintained Highsmith's psychologically tormented characters while changing the location and time of her story from the U.S. of the 1960s to Germany in the early 1980s.

Consul Werle holds a reception in honour of the homecoming of his son Gregers. At the reception, Gregers meets his childhood friend, Hjalmar Ekdal, who is married to Gina, a former maid of the Werle family. Hjalmar is unaware that Werle had an affair with Gina and that their 14-year-old daughter Hedwig is not his child. Gregers moves in with the Ekdals with the intention of allowing unsuspecting Hjalmar and his family to share in the "happiness of truth". Hedwig is entirely devoted to a wild duck, which lives on a pond outside their house. When Hjalmar learns the truth about his daughter, he wants to leave his family. Gregers advises Hedwig to kill the wild duck so that her father, impressed by this sacrifice, will return home. On the following day, Hedwig's birthday, she doesn't shoot the duck, but shoots herself instead.