Moa is seven years old and lives with her mother and her hamster. When her mother gets a new boyfriend Moa starts fantasising about her father's life in Africa.
This film deals with the contrasts of the Wilhelminian era in Berlin: the splendor of the monarchy, the economic and intellectual vitality of the up-and-coming imperial capital on the one hand, and the misery of the proletarians in the tenements on the other.
Something very common in our days, an adolescent who does not find communication with her mother or stepfather falls into a depression that drags her down paths of difficult return.
The weekly brass band rehearsal is an enjoyable, light-hearted occasion. Then Mathew, the conductor, introduces James, a newcomer to the village, who is an enthusiastic bandsman from the north, where they do these things properly.
On March 16, 1978, far-left terrorists of the Red Brigades kidnap Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian Democracy, the ruling party in Italy since the end of WWII.