Wege übers Land plot
For the young Maria Habersaat, it is her fate that she had to move to Poland during the Second World War and in the aftermath of the war. After her husband volunteered for the front and did not return after the war, she returns to her native village with her two adopted children. With great effort she manages to build up the second largest company in the region. But then the communist collectivization starts and Gertrud fights hard so that she does not have to part with her company. She falls in love with the mayor, a German communist. When he learns that Gertrude wants to have her husband pronounced dead, he wants to marry her. But suddenly the missing husband shows up from West Germany.