Christian Böttcher

East Berlin, shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Kurt Schröder and his family dig a tunnel to escape to West Berlin as they struggle to overcome the obstacles blocking their underground path to freedom.

A young officer suffers under his ambitious wife, who is determined to make a captain out of him. Meanwhile, ship's cook Andresen becomes a father and, for the sake of his wife, becomes an innkeeper ashore, but he is still driven by wanderlust.