A young man manages to get out of East Germany and come to West Berlin, where his one aim is to arrange for his girlfriend to follow him so they can head off together for warmer climes. While waiting he experiences the reality of the Federal Republic of (West) Germany through naive and amazed eyes, punctuated by the fate of the former East Germans whose shared flat he lives in. They lost their illusions about West long ago - a particularly striking example is the actress from East Germany who ends up in a peep-show in the West - but they can't seem to make any joint effort to try again.