Alex is an ordinary teenager in East Berlin. In the turmoil leading up to the collapse of the Wall in 1989, his mother has a heart attack and falls into a coma. She remains unconscious for the next eight months while the world she has known undergoes massive social and economic change. When she awakens, her doctor fears than another heart attack would kill her. He recommends that she stay calm, and not be exposed to any kind of excitement. Alex’s mother was an active and dedicated Socialist, and Alex decides to take her home and build an elaborate fantasy bubble around her in which the Wall never fell, and where the DDR is as strong as ever.

Good Bye Lenin! is a witty and touching family drama. It has strong comedic elements, but even though the main story revolves around an elaborate deception, in never descends into simple farce. It much prefers to to explore the limits of white lies: where does kindness end and cruetly begin? This theme is present throughout the plot in several other guises, and it comes full circle in the end, with moving results.