November 1947 in Frauenberg, a little garison town in southern German. The town's only relief from a hard postwar winter is a "social event" to lift the hopes of the community: the wedding of the regiment commander Colonel Bellmont (Christoph Buchholz) to Freya Sonnenberg (Karoline Eichhorn), the second of three daughters in a respected family. Freya is looking forward to leaving her dreary existence behind her for a new life in the USA. Nora (Barbara Rudnik),the oldest of the sisters, views the marriage as a way to exonerate her late father, the former mayor, who had been victimized by local intrigues in the past. She is also in love with Jacob Goldblum (Stefan Kurt), a former concentration-camp-prisoner and blackmarketeer. Gudrun (Mavie Hoerbiger), nicknamed "Guddi", the youngest sister and a free-wheeling spirit, has to contend with a blackmailer who, on the eve of the wedding, says that Freya was once the lover of a Nazi boss. The sisters meet the challenge in a night of ups and downs - until a catastrophe of another sort bursts upon the scene.