Werner Blücher is what you'd call a real thoroughbred crook: not a second seems to go by without the cunning rascal coming up with an idea for the next coup. It's just too bad that Blücher's criminal career hasn't been too successful so far - his lawyer has just got him out of prison once again. And although his arch-enemy, the fanatical chief inspector Schmitz-Kesselhoff, is doing everything she can together with her dotty assistant Müller Zwo to get Blücher out of circulation once and for all, the gallant crook is already planning the next thing.
Anthropologist Tobias Schmidt-Eberbach is about to get married. However, a find of a prehistoric skull on his wedding day messes up his plans. So does hitchhiker Uschi Mueller who he picks up merely by accident. It does not help that the police thinks that Tobias is a serial killer and Uschi his next victim, and neither that the real killer is still on the loose…
Vera Kemp, heiress of an industrial enterprise, lives in an apparently perfect world. While she doesn't care for big business, her husband Manfred runs the company. However, she learns about his affair with a younger woman and tries to save her marriage. During a vacation in Italy, Manfred and their son Max die in a road accident. Vera nearly despairs of her grief and, even worse, recognizes that her whole life has been a lie. Andreas Wolgast, a former employee, is the only one who supports her fight for the company and against her caballing family...
Kati, successful advertising manager, dreams of a family with Jonas, who has been her boyfriend since eight years. As he doesn't like the plan at all, they start an argument. Kati finally decides to go to her sister Luise on Christmas instead of flying to Mauritius with Jonas. This turns out to be a bad idea because she isn't the only guest Luise's family has to bear... Kati, successful advertising manager, dreams of a family with Jonas, who has been her boyfriend since eight years. As he doesn't like the plan at all, they start an argument. Kati finally decides to go to her sister Luise on Christmas instead of flying to Mauritius with Jonas. This turns out to be a bad idea because she isn't the only guest Luise's family has to bear...
Anyone looking for Austrian cuisine in Dresden goes to the restaurant "Lieblich an der Elbe" in the idyllic Elbschlösschen, which Maria Lieblich has successfully established together with her friends Steffi Krieg and Carola Bleibtreu. But the bank is breathing down the necks of the ambitious restaurateurs with high loan demands. When the elegant ship owner Hermann Augartner offers them a lucrative catering job, the ladies see their big chance to get out of their business predicament. However, it soon becomes clear that Augartner has no interest in helping the ladies out financially.
Heinz Borbet, also known as "Beule" because of his dented car, finds a red safe hidden in the dung heap of an allotment garden: the two thieves Bruno and Fred have stored it there for the time being because they couldn't get the safe open. The safe is almost impossible to crack. Heinz is not the only one to feel this in the episode, who is delighted with his supposed, unexpected wealth, but also around a dozen other candidates. Then the police get involved in the form of Inspector Fleischhauer ...
Kati and Jonas have planned to get married secretly during their Christmas trip to Mauritius - but in the end, Kati's entire family gets wind of the plan and shows up at the airport to accompany them.
Three seasoned women, successful and in the prime of their years, have had enough of the masters of creation. Maria finally leaves her husband Josef, to whom she led the common starred restaurant in Vienna in spite of his affairs during the marriage. The family judge Steffi wants to find a new beginning after their early retirement, and the pharmacist Carola is tired of being the eternal lover of her married friend. The trio travel from Vienna to Saxony, where Maria inherited a small castle-like estate.
Anna and Christian Instrupp are a happy and childless marriage. They have a farm of apple production. But their lives are disrupted when the Anna's illegitimate daughter, Ines Arnold, writes a letter to her where she tells him that his adoptive parents have died and that she would like to know.
Johannes has a comfortable life and stands to inherit the family-run hotel. Unfortunately, however, he is an inveterate people-pleaser and avoids conflict at any cost. His father’s last will and testament sparks a tragi-comic journey to sunny Greece – and the realisation that it is time to take control of his own life.
Nele Ungureit is blindsided: suddenly, after 35 years of marriage, her husband Fred leaves her for his secretary. Nele's ideas of happiness together in old age are suddenly shattered. Even her two grown-up children Susan and Hannes are no support for her in this difficult situation. Nele has great difficulty adjusting to her new single life - until the surprising inheritance of a spacious city villa gives her an idea: together with some senior citizens she has met in the meantime, Nele sets up a shared flat and life together. The only problem is that her son Hannes has his own plans for the villa.
A domestic house cat named Francis investigates the grisly feline murders taking place in his new neighborhood.
After a night out at a disco, 17-year-old Finn is hit by a car driven by aspiring judge Maxim Vollert. He leaves the seemingly uninjured man behind, who succumbs to his internal injuries. Finn's brother Mike, who reproaches himself for letting the drunk Finn walk home alone, meets Sylvie Vollert at Finn's grave, who was sitting next to her husband in the car on the night of the accident. A passionate relationship develops between Mike and Sylvie. Mike soon suspects that Sylvie was involved in his brother's death. When Mike tells his parents about the growing suspicions against the Vollerts and his mother finds out about the liaison between Mike and Sylvie, her world collapses.
During the Christmas holidays, Hubert and Staller investigate the demise of an elderly pensioner who died suspiciously but unnoticed a year earlier.
The missing person case of a young woman leads Seeler to a Croatian island to a mysterious connection that uses hypnosis to treat people with mental trauma. The investigator experiences for himself how dangerous "false" memories that feel "real" can be when he dives into his subconscious.
Abandoned by his girlfriend for a lack of qualities, Flo has to decide what to do and where to go next. By chance, he meets Leonie, who has a heart condition. She takes him on a journey: One heart broken, the other one damaged.