In the village of Medela, the village elder Fritz Schmal is buried with great sympathy. Beforehand, Till goes with his father to his property to check on the stork on its new nest. When they join the funeral procession afterwards, the stork has just returned from Africa and joins her husband on the nest. So it comes as Grandad Schmal had predicted. The following flashback shows how it all began.

1972 film by Werner W. Wallroth

Captain Jim Leslie, a US Air Force pilot, is transferred to a remote Alaskan base not far from the Soviet border. Here he meets his old friend Harris again and falls in love with Brenda, the commander's daughter. He then comes into conflict with her fiancé, Senator Gordon Gray. At his instigation, he is sent on a dangerous mission with Harris and the navigator Hester: During a storm, the buoys deployed to locate Soviet submarines must be checked. During the emergency landing on an ice floe, Harris suffers a life-threatening injury. They are in Soviet territory, but in view of the situation Jim disregards the radio ban and sends a distress signal. A Soviet submarine appears, Harris is operated on and they are helped to get the plane ready for take-off. Arriving at the base, Jim is arrested. Brenda turns her back on him.

Der junge Hubertus von Saatlow plant seine Verlobung mit einer Designerin und hofft auf eine Karriere in der Wirtschaft. Doch ein Besuch auf dem Stammschloss seiner Familie ändert alles. Plötzlich hat sich Hubertus neu verliebt - in das Schloss Sandin und in eine junge Frau, die seinen Traum vom Leben auf dem Land zu teilen scheint. - "Was Du ererbt von Deinen Vätern, erwirb es, um es zu besitzen": Die Liebesgeschichte im Adelsmilieu beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, was alte Traditionen heute noch bedeuten können und wie die Nachkommen mit ihrer Familiengeschichte leben.