[3] Projection-equipment repair mechanic Bruno Winter meets depressed Robert Lander after the latter has driven his car into a river in a half-hearted suicide attempt following a break-up with his wife.

While out on the road, Bruno and Robert encounter several people in various states of despair, including a man whose wife has committed suicide by driving her car into a tree.

[6] The songs that are played in Bruno's portable single-disc player are: "The More I See You" by Chris Montez, "Just Like Eddie" by Heinz, and "King of the Road" by Roger Miller.

[9] Wolf Donner of Die Zeit said that "motions, sequences of confusingly beautiful and suggestive shots, highly poetic compositions and technical perfection make up the particular charm of this three-hour-long black-and-white film.

[...] Scenes shot in a nocturnal mist, in the half-glow of the evening and morning, a profound depth of field, a variety of lenses, iridescent effects in the interaction of filters, natural and artificial light, long shots where entire landscapes seem illuminated: these formal qualities always simultaneously bring out the dual meaning of this itinerancy, the nowhereness of this trip, the between-space outside of ordinary reference to reality.

[15] In 2016, The Criterion Collection released the film in Region 1 on DVD and Blu-ray, along with Alice in the Cities and Wrong Move, as Wim Wenders: The Road Trilogy.