The carpenter Tillmann Rutenschneider moves around for years. In 1932, at the age of thirty, he returns to his village in Brandenburg with a foreign wife. He builds a house, starts a family. It doesn't take long before he falls victim to the new racial laws. His house is set on fire, his wife and child are burned in the flames. He is sent to a concentration camp. After the liberation he goes back to his home village, founds a new family and builds a new house. He joins forces with resettlers to form a cooperative, pushing through land reform in his very own way. Tillmann gets into debt, gets into trouble and ends up in prison. He has to sell his house to pay the debt. Released from prison, Tillmann Rutenschneider sets off again for his village.
—DEFA