With the death of her mother, eight-year-old Anna ends her childhood: From now on, she has to look after the nine-member family. Deprivation-rich years, which also find no end when Anna marries: Her husband Albert must be a soldier in the Second World War, and the pregnant Anna has to work hard in the farm and care sick relatives. Lonely and exposed to the harassment of the tyrannical mother-in-law, she waits for Albert, with no certainty that he will ever return.
The story of the 18 year old prostitute Fanny who falls back into her old life after being released from a reform school run by nuns. The feeble-minded Frieder tries to liberate her, fails, and pays for it with his life.
Péter begins to correspond with the unknown Ági living in Munich while he is spending his military service. After the service he goes to Munich and at the address given by Ági he finds four nice old women who put him up. He cannot find Ági, however.
