Germany in the years just following World War I: Erich Lohkamp, Otto Koster, and Gottfried Lenz, three battle-weary, are thoroughly disillusioned returning soldiers. The three friends pool their savings and open an auto-repair shop, and it is this that brings them in contact with wealthy motorist Franz Breuer — and with Breuer's lovely travelling companion Pat Hollmann. Lohkamp begins a romance with Pat, who soon joins the three comrades, making the group a jovial, fun-seeking foursome. Though Pat suffers from tuberculosis (her shady past is only alluded to), she is encouraged by her male companions to fully enjoy what is left of her life. This becomes increasingly difficult when one of the comrades, Lenz, is killed during a political riot. In the end, the four comrades are only two in number, with nothing but memories to see them through the cataclysmic years to come.