Paul is a minor bureaucrat in East Berlin, where he lives with his wife and their son in a modern high-rise apartment building. While he is well educated and professionally ambitious, he is generally bored with his life. He cannot relate to his unsophisticated wife, who is repeatedly unfaithful, even bringing men home to their apartment when Paul is away. Paula, a grocery store cashier and single mother of two, lives in a run-down, prewar building directly across from Paul's modern high-rise. Having thrown out her philandering live-in lover (and father of her younger child), she is seeking more happiness in her tedious life. Paul and Paula meet at a nightclub and instantly connect. Paula falls in love with Paul and pursues him passionately. He desires her, but is reluctant to endanger his career and his marriage. When one of Paula's children is killed in an accident, Paul realizes that Paula is more important than his career and his marriage, but she is so crushed by her loss that she rejects him. Seeking security, she seriously contemplates marriage with an older, successful but dull businessman, and Paul must go to great lengths to win Paula back. Ultimately, he succeeds and they move in together, but she dies giving birth to their child.