In this German comedy, set in the war-devastated Germany of 1945, a factory worker, Kalle, travels to Wittenberge to retrieve the carbide needed to restart production in a ruined Dresden factory. Along the way, he foils both U.S. and Soviet officers, encounters a nymphomaniac widow, navigates a mine-filled forest, takes an assortment of odd jobs, and falls in love with a peasant girl, Karla.