Werner von Basil, a Austrian intellectual, was captured by the Nazis in 1938. They want to break him to confess smuggling. Without any mental sustenance, the only thing left to keep his mind busy is an old tactics book for chess.
Soon after World War II, a pregnant Polish refugee, Pauline, wanders Berlin looking for the boyfriend who abandoned her. She has no option but to sell her child to another woman, Anna. After the birth, Pauline decides she wants the baby back.
During the Third Reich, Macke played the drums for the Hitler Youth, but also had a "dangerous" penchant for jazz. After the war, he came under ideological fire in the Soviet zone. Finally in West Germany, he ends up in an institution.
