The unemployed machinist Alfred "Scheff" Schefczyk moves from Württemberg to West Berlin full of hope, where he finds a job as a transporter. There, however, he despairs at the seemingly insurmountable dependency structures and the lack of solidarity among his fellow sufferers. The rent in the workers' hostel is raised disproportionately, but nobody wants to mess things up with the landlord or janitor. At work, piecework hours are tightened, but nobody wants to go on strike, and when they do, they are quickly crushed by the management's tactics. When Scheff tries to mobilize against the dismissal of one of the delegates, he finds only one worker willing to sign. "Dear mother, I'm fine," he nevertheless writes on a postcard.