A former POW returns home to his family in a West German mining town after years in a Soviet prison camp. He struggles to adapt to a civilized family life and reconnect with his soccer-obsessed son, who has developed a close relationship with an aspiring World Cup athlete. As West Germany prepares to compete in the championship in Bern, Switzerland, the boy wants nothing more than to travel to these historic games, causing further friction in an already strained relationship with his father. Director and ex-football player Soenke Wortmann has brilliantly succeeded in setting an intensely emotional and touching family drama against the exhilarating, authentic background of West Germany's miraculous World Cup victory in 1954.