[1] Richard, a coal miner from Essen, returns after eleven years of being a Soviet prisoner of war in Siberia.
His wife is running a small bar, his elder son has become a Communist challenging his father's ideals of the Nazi time, his daughter flirts with British soldiers who are his former enemies, while his 11-year-old son Matthias, who never knew his father, admires a local football hero instead, Helmut Rahn of Rot-Weiß Essen.
While Richard is initially very stern about Matthias' love for football, he gradually softens such that, on the night before the final game, father and son drive to Bern to see the match.
A third more light-hearted comic relief story line revolves around the fictional sports reporter Paul Ackermann and his wife, who travel to the World Cup despite their fundamentally different views on the importance of football.
Winning the Jules Rimet Trophy by beating the world's strongest team gave the country new pride and is seen as a herald of Germany's economic and political recovery.