Germany in the 1960s: Peaceful times in the West can start at last, if only Irene Striesow could manage to shake off the past. She is homesick for East Germany, mistrustful of the cease fire, and most of all, distraught about her husband Dieter's other women. She would rather die young and she doesn't make any efforts to hide it from Dieter and her three children Ute, Wasa and Flori. As their living room begins to look more like a war zone, her children decide to take matters in their own hands. They want their mother to finally be happy, that Dieter can crack light-hearted jokes about East Germany again, and that, if possible, the third world war doesn't happen after all …