Hermann and Maria Braun are getting married in a town hall, which has just been hit by a bomb during the Second World War. Two days later Hermann has to return to the front and doesn’t make it back once the war is over. Maria waits, eking out a living and then receives the news that he is dead. She works in a bar and begins a relationship with a black GI. One evening, when she’s just about to go to bed with him, Hermann walks through the door. She strikes her lover dead. In court, her husband takes all the blame on himself and goes to jail for her. In his place, Maria strives towards a better life. Towards a common future on the Big Day, the day of his second return. She learns the basic economic laws of the boom years of the just founded German Republic and believes herself to be in control of her emotional life which is, however, dictated by economic rules. A mistake for which she will end up paying a high price. »The Marriage of Maria Braun«, the 38th film made by Fassbinder in his short lifetime, is the first part of the Federal Republic of Germany trilogy (after »Lola« and »The Longing of Veronika Voss«) and is at the heart of Fassbinder's confrontation with the founding myths of the Federal Republic.