After Sam, a penniless Afro-German singer, discovers he's HIV-positive, he gets utterly drunk, spends a few miserable days, then promptly falls (back) in love. Amidst a crumbling former East Berlin (its buildings, cars, people, and culture), Sam develops a "family" for the new millennium, for the new generation of post-drug-cocktail AIDS victims. The fragile "family" he forms includes his on-again/off-again boyfriend Rainer and his best friend Bastl with his latest fling Mike. Like the old, schmaltzy East German songs which Sam is recording, the sweet innocence of the characters struggles to prevail, the characters' misfortunes notwithstanding.