The films trace the moving stories of people in North Rhine-Westphalia. For example, "Unser Land" accompanies Hansi Schmidt, once a player for VFL Gummersbach. In 1971, the team was the first ever to win the European Cup Winners' Cup for the third time. The fact that Hansi Schmidt had caused the scandalous resignation of the coach was quickly forgotten. Football legend Klaus Fischer, on the other hand, went through a low point: the striker of the century was dragged deep into the Bundesliga scandal right at the beginning of his career with his club Schalke 04.

1971 is also the year of another scandal led by Alice Schwarzer. Prominent and non-prominent women confessed on the cover of Stern: We had an abortion! Among them were such big names as Romy Schneider and Senta Berger. Cologne activist Gisela Schneider tells how she fought for women's rights at the time and collected signatures for the campaign against § 218 in Cologne's pedestrian zone.

But 1971 is also the year in which many things that were simply new were perceived as scandalous: the new road traffic regulations, for example. Or the "Sendung mit der Maus", which was first broadcast as "Lach- und Sachgeschichten" in the spring of 1971. Others proved to be enduringly dangerous and therefore truly scandalous. For example, a whole series of toxic waste discoveries alarmed NRW.

The film is narrated by radio presenter Steffi Neu, who was born in the Lower Rhine region in 1971. WDR was able to win ten prominent personalities from NRW as sponsors and narrators of the films. They tell the stories and events of the year they were born, making the series "Our Country - the 70s" a very personal and entertaining journey back in time to a turbulent decade.