A day before the beginning of the Second World War, a young resident of Bydgoszcz falls in love with a German teenager.

35-year old ballet soloist Peter ends his career as a performance dancer and, on the occasion of his last stage performance, looks back on his career and his life. Peter′s retrospection is centred on the relationship with his professional and romantic partner Lotte, who he had once met at a joint performance. Peter remembers the landmarks of their love: their marriage, their child, and Lotte′s severe illness that threatened to end her career. In flashbacks, the film shows how the couple survived this crisis by working sacrificially to return to the stage and celebrate international success.

Josef Neumann has always been an outsider to society, and at the age of 30, he has already lived an adventurous life when he comes to the GDR. He was raised as a foundling by nuns, made an apprenticeship as a construction worker, went to the Foreign Legion, and was a seaman and a tramp. Now, he is working at the Warnow shipyard. Brigadier Bruno has a lot of sympathy and patience with the unconventional Josef, but Josef cannot fall in line with strict orders and again and again acts against the rules.