World War II is grinding to a close, and middle-aged Lena Bruecker (Barbara Sukowa) is caught in the fallout of Germany's crushing defeat. Her husband is missing in action on the Eastern Front, her children are all grown and out of touch with her, and each day she has to hand out meager rations to the hungry at an Food Distribution Agency office with her co-worker Holzinger (Wolfgang Boeck). Lena spends her evenings waiting out Allied air attacks and sometimes going to the movies, and one night she happens to meet Hermann Bremer (Alexander Khuon), a German sailor. Hermann is on a short leave and is wary about returning to a dangerous assignment that seems increasingly futile. Lena and Hermann fall in love, and she offers to let him hide in her flat, but Lena's landlord Lammers (Branko Samarovski) is rabidly loyal to the Third Reich and will certainly turn Hermann in to the authorities if he discovers the deserter.