1974. The world is divided into two rigid power blocs. A highly guarded and deadly armed border cuts across Germany. ALEXANDER KAROW, 19, son of a chemistry professor, chooses to serve in the border patrols of the GDR. It is an escape from his protective father who wants to arrange an effortless and less dangerous post for his son. He expects Alexander to follow his footsteps, study chemistry and fight for the utopia of a just socialism. The reality could hardly be more disillusioning. The border troops are dominated by brutal rituals among the soldiers, tolerated by the officers. As a professor's son Alex is exposed to special bullying, but his platoon keeps together and one of the elder privates, GAPPA, befriends and protects him. Alex learns quickly that the ideals of equality, democracy and human dignity are just propaganda. And he understands that rather than protecting the GDR from the western capitalist enemy, the border is there to prevent the own population from fleeing the country. The question what happens if someone emerges in the sight of the kalashnikow engages the soldiers day and night. In all this desperation Alex meets a girl, CHRISTINE: tractor-driver, self-confident and inaccessible at first. The two get close. It is Alex' first love. Christine encourages him not to follow his father's expectations but to fulfill his dream of becoming a photographer. But then Christine'*s brother KNUT uses one of Alexander's photographs of the border installations for an oppositional campaign and things get out of control. Christine asks Alex to let her brother cross the border because Knut is persecuted by the state security. Reluctantly Alex agrees. But when Knut arrives at the specified border point, he is not alone - next to him is Christine. Alex is faced with the toughest decision in his life...