Matti Geschonneck and Wolfgang Kohlhaase present a successful film adaptation of Eugen Ruge's award-winning novel, transforming the celebrations surrounding the main character's 90th birthday into an intense intimate play. In the fall of 1989, Wilhelm Powileit, a deserving member of the party and staunch Stalinist, celebrates his 90th birthday. Everyone comes to visit the villa where he resides with his wife Charlotte: the SED district leadership, who award him another medal for his services, the pioneers, who sing him a serenade, and his stepson Kurt, who spent many years in captivity in Siberia and met his Russian wife Irina there, is also a guest. However, grandson Sascha, who had fled the republic the day before, is sorely missed. But despite all the negative news, Wilhelm stoically maintains the illusion of actually existing socialism.