A paean to alcohol as a means of survival to this world, and to the ephemeral communities created by our need not to be alone. On Christmas Eve, between six in the evening and four at night, Klaus Wildenhahn films people who are excluded from this "must be" celebration, and land up in a bar in St. Pauli, Hamburg: truck drivers and prostitutes, regular or casual customers, a coach and an amateur boxer... all desperately in search of happiness, tenderness and sex.

A portrait of the people in '70s and '80s St. Pauli.

Sometimes your fate lies in the hands of those you meet. Filled with promising ambitions, shattered dreams, love and revenge and in the end hope, the story reveals how tangibly interconnected our induividual fates really are. Cabby Robby drives in and around St.Pauli, Hamburg, from sunset to sunrise. He is surrounded by stories of the night. Drowning in human incidents.

A good doctor is out to stop his evil doctor brother from blackmailing his patients.

A pop singer who has been successful on Broadway, is homesick and returns.

The dangerous violent criminal Willy Jensen flees from a prison in Hamburg and seeks shelter at his brother Heinz' apartment. Heinz, an honest taxi-driver, believes in his innocence and helps him - until Willy kills another man in a robbery. After an argument Willy takes his wife Vera, who now lives with Heinz, as hostage on his further flight from the police. Heinz feels responsible for his brother and trails him, which makes it look to the police as if he's helping his brother.

A former U-boat commander becomes a pastor to ease the suffering of young Hamburg women in trouble.