After four years, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison in 1928. He had been convicted of the manslaughter of his friend Ida. Now he wants to start a new, honest life, but life does not make it easy for him. Again and again he suffers severe setbacks. At first, he makes ends meet with odd jobs, sells the "Völkischer Beobachter" against his political convictions and becomes a peddler on behalf of Lina's uncle, his first love after prison. His feelings are disappointed, Franz becomes depressed, he drinks, but he does not give up yet. But then he gets to know the gangsters Pums and Reinhold and goes into business with them. In 1928 Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released after serving four years in Tegel prison for killing his girlfriend Ida. After settling into his old apartment he visits Minna, Ida’s sister. Minna succumbs to his forceful advances. In a flashback we see Franz kill Ida with a cream whip after suspecting she was going to leave him. Franz later runs into his old friend Meck and has a drink with him in Max’s bar, a local place. There he meets a young Polish woman named Lina who moves in with him.