In 1943, an air raid hits Maria (Hanna Schygulla) and Hermann Braun's wedding ceremony, indicating what is to come for them. During and after the war, Hermann goes missing on the Russian Front, serves a jail sentence and emigrates to the U.S.A. Maria, meanwhile, builds up an industrial empire alone. Together with 'Lola' and 'Veronika Voss', this forms Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 'West German Trilogy', a series of films offering comment upon the reconstruction of the Federal Republic after the war.