Los Angeles, 1959. The aging filmmaker Curtis Melnitz is tormented by nightmares. He is in dire need of sleeping pills – but can only get them if he regularly visits the psychoanalyst. On the analyst’s couch, he reluctantly recounts the story of his life, from Hollywood to Berlin, from the black-and-white, silent dream factory to the garish and glaring German reality of the early 20th century. A chapter for every appointment on the couch. A life like a novel.

Andersen, once a brutal torturer, is reborn in another century. However, his evil nature has not disappeared; it is now simply trapped in the cute form of an infant – and is therefore all the more terrifying. Andersen is given a new chance with his new life. But he does not use it to atone for his crimes. On the contrary.

Joseph is lonely and struggling with his lot in life, not least because his wife Lis, unable to bear day-to-day life on the farm, has fled to the city with their son. This is far from a daily occurrence in the 1960s in the countryside. Luckily, Ada, Lis’ older sister, is still there — with whom Joseph perhaps always felt more connected. And then 19-year-old Birdie suddenly appears on his doorstep, weak, and fleeing her own predetermined path. Lis, Ada and Birdie — they will turn not only their own lives upside down, but Joseph’s too.

A young woman called Lina Verde is searching the craggy, steep cliffs of Capri for a rare orchid. Soon afterwards, Zeno the fisherman finds her lifeless body. He claims that he and Lina were a couple, but he doesn’t even know her address. Did he kill her? Zeno is a notorious liar who presents himself as a sociable Capri fisherman, at least to female tourists. The island police officers Enrico Rizzi and Antonia Cirillo believe him to be capable of anything, but a perfumer leads them onto a new trail. Was Lina really just looking for a flower?

Berlin, 1943: At Plötzensee, 20-year-old Liane Berkovitz is executed by the Nazis. Young love and her contempt for the Nazi dictatorship have made her into a resistance fighter with the Schulze-Boysen group. Decades later, an elderly woman is walking along the streets of Berlin; unkempt, with long, snow-white hair. Everyone who lives there has seen her, but barely anyone knows who she really is: a millionaire, and the first-hand witness of Liane’s momentous life.

When the snow in the Alps melts down into the valley below, the time has come: Mother wakes from her hibernation, her head filled with the dreams of the past months. She is awaited by Grandfather, and cared for by her children, the twins. Soon, the first visitors will arrive, because Mother’s dreams promise advice and give comfort. This is how it is, year after year. But this summer, the twins’ tenth, everything is about to change — and what Mother predicts will come true in an unexpected way.

Kalmann is a lovable eccentric in the village of Raufarhöfn, high up in the rugged north of Iceland. Ever since his father gave him a sheriff’s hat years ago, he has regarded himself as the village’s sheriff. And in this role, once again, he has a lot on his plate: While the town is heatedly debating the salmon farm that the Norwegians are planning, he discovers an old tin box containing a huge amount of money. It awakens desires, and before long Kalmann is embroiled in a murky game.