This biographical musical film follows the life of Gerhard Gundermann, an East German singer who enchanted audiences with the intelligent lyrics of melancholic ballads as well as rock songs. Gundermann worked his whole life in coal mines as an excavator operator, he had intense leftist opinions and his songs often included social criticism. The darker side of his life included cooperation with the German secret police – the Stasi, which he publicly admitted after the Iron Curtain fell.