Drama about the life of a few working class Germans.

Fragments of fairy tales alternate with observations of children. Documentary and staged sequences are combined. There is no break and no contrast between reality, the children's behavior and the imagination; they merge into one another.

Marion is pregnant, but she doesn't know by whom. Three men come into question, all of whom will die sooner or later in the course of the movie. Just like all of us - as an announcement at the beginning of the film announces to the audience. The semi-documentary and fragmentarily narrated film leads via various paths and detours to the river that gives the film its title.