The nineteen-year-old Gregor Hecker returns to Germany after 13 years in exile, shortly before the end of World War II. He wears the uniform of a Russian Lieutenant of the Red Army and shouts through a loudspeaker, that the soldiers should lay down their weapons and save their lives. During the stupid last battles Gregor becomes a mediator between the parties. He meets a lot of people with many different destinies and recogizes that "the Germans" do not exist.