After 7 October 1989, nothing will ever be the same again. The GDR celebrates its 40th birthday and, at the request of Erich Honecker and his Politburo, it is to be celebrated triumphantly. Guests from all over the world arrive. Gorbachev - the great reformer of the USSR - is also among them. In East Berlin, the choreography of power unfolds: tens of thousands of FDJ members stage an impressive torchlight procession. A military parade is supposed to prove the country's clout, but in fact the GDR is on the verge of collapse. The citizens want a new beginning and freedom. In Plauen on 7 October there is the first large mass demonstration against the regime. Things escalate in East Berlin. The Palace of the Republic - the central venue for the state banquet - becomes a ghostly backdrop. While the socialist elite celebrates, the people on the streets demand reforms. No sooner has Gorbachev, the bearer of hope, departed than the state strikes brutally. Thousands of peacefully demonstrating citizens are arrested. But the revolution can no longer be stopped. In the film, comrades and employees of the State Security, police officers, journalists, civil rights activists and citizens tell their view of this historically significant date and their personal stories. .