In 1961, shortly after the construction of the wall, Sophie, Konrad and several friends attempt to escape to West Berlin through an underground sewer system. Due to an ambiguous moment of hesitation, Konrad is left behind in East Berlin. What follows is a story of love and separation set against the political realities that determine and shape their respective lives in East and West Berlin. As a respected scientist with travel privileges, Konrad is able to meet Sophie four times during the course of the next twenty-eight years - until the night of November 9, 1989, when the wall comes down. "When Peter (Schneider, the scriptwriter) suggested the love story, I immediately thought it was interesting. Because, in the love between the man and the woman, the central element was a longing for emotional and physical unification. If I was to do a film about Germany, divided and unified, then that was the solution: to tell the story emotionally and undidactically but yet symbolically.'' (Margarethe von Trotta, Director)