An attempted robbery from a railway freight wagon takes place in a marshaling yard in East Germany. The Yard Supervisor, Brock recognises the thief as someone he has good reason to hate from the wartime. But identifying him would bring all sorts of ghosts out to haunt him, so he denies knowing the man. Meanwhile his daughter and her boyfriend get curious about the past and when they investigate, they expose a history that is explosive. Can anyone put the genie back in the bottle?

Bad planning and shortages prevail on an East German construction site. Foreman Hannes Balla uses unconventional methods to overcome the problems. New Socialist Unity Party secretary Werner Horrath is charged with bringing the rough-and-ready builder crew into line. The task seems doomed to fail as the two men compete for the affections of young engineer Kati Klee. But when she gets pregnant by married man Horrath, he is in danger of being expelled from the party, and Balla takes his side...