Helgoland. Here, on Germany's only offshore island, a small community of survivors of an apocalypse that has overrun the rest of the world and plunged it into chaos is holed up. But the price of their survival is high. The resources on the rocky island are scarce, so that an inhumane "social ranking" system determines the lives of the 513 inhabitants: each islander is evaluated according to his usefulness. The only doctor is high on the list, others are far behind, and they have to fight for their place on the list and their survival. Meanwhile, people from the mainland are trying to get to Helgoland and the Helgolanders have to defend their island.

Mira lives for the sport of ice hockey and leads her team as captain with a strong determination. It's a challenge to reconcile this with her role in the family vineyard: with her mother and her adventurous but increasingly demented grandfather, she runs the farm - with all its responsibilities. The new player Theresa completely unsettles her with her nonchalance and openness. And when Mira's missing brother Paul also turns up and all three get lost in late-night Vienna, Mira discovers the freedom it means to break rules, to reinvent herself - and that you can only love if you let go.

When Ingeborg Bachmann and Max Frisch meet for the first time in Paris in the summer of 1958, they are already international celebrities of the literary world. In the four years that follow, they dabble in great love and an open relationship between his hometown of Zurich and her adopted Rome.

Twelve-year-old Karli moves to the Alps, where his parents open a hotel. While helping with renovations, he discovers an old elevator that takes him back to 1938. There, he befriends a Jewish girl, Hannah, and a shoeshine boy, Georg. Together, they solve a mystery, and Karli realizes the dark fate looming over his new friends.

During an ascent up the mountain Felix (17) realizes that his older brother Paul (24) is losing mobility and strength. Suppressing his doubts, Felix tries to find a way to communicate to his brother. While they walk, memories of their childhood are awakened and a deep fear about an uncertain future grows.