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 USA. Maria, meanwhile, builds up an industrial empire alone. This film forms part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 'West German Trilogy', a series of films offering comment upon the reconstruction of the Federal Republic after the war.