Pro Vobis - Gesellschaft für Film und Fernsehen

Little Marie is turned into a maid, a Cinderella, by her stepmother, while her stepsister Clothilde is pampered. One day, Prince Leonhard and his friend Peter appear, both disguised as servants, and present Clothilde with an invitation to a masked ball. Cinderella falls in love with Leonhard and fights to be allowed to go to the ball because she wants to see her supposed servant again. However, the ambitious stepmother only gives her own daughter a beautiful dress. But the magic tree on Marie's mother's grave throws down a beautiful dress. Cinderella shines at the ball and enchants the prince, but just before midnight, before the spell expires, she flees. Will the prince be able to love a Cinderella?

The film talks about the rise and fall of the two most influential protagonists in GDR-politics. In succession, over long stretches even together, Ulbricht and Honecker determined the course of the GDR, of course without ever getting out of being a satellite state to the big brother in Moscow. The film looks for the caesura and crucial points in the power game between Ulbricht and Honecker.