The war has only been raging for a few weeks. Ernst and Karl have been transferred to the front in accordance with their wishes and are still optimistic. Margarete signs up as a volunteer in a hospital, where she is deployed as a nurse. Her mother is anything but enthusiastic about this. Theodor Chindler makes no secret of his skepticism about the war, even as a member of the Reichstag, which earns him the suspicion of numerous colleagues. The atmosphere at the Chindlers' first wartime Christmas at home is oppressive.