Five retirees decide to swap their tiny apartments for a big one. It takes some time for them to get used to it, but when they finally start enjoying it, one of them suffers a stroke and they all have to learn to cope with a new situation.

You don't transplant an old tree. Five friends in their early 60s see things differently. They are afraid of loneliness and want to give their lives a new twist. Cheerful, if a little naive, the quartet sets up a flat-sharing community. A risk, because the characters of the Communards could hardly be more different. Philip spent 30 years in Africa as a doctor. His college friend Harry, die-hard single, still drives a taxi and is not exactly easy to care for. He likes to put his butts out in the flower pot. The psychologist Ricarda always has everything under control, at least that's what she thinks. Her friend Uschi, a jolly sausage seller, sometimes spreads more good humor than the others can bear. And the widower Eckart moves in with his deceased wife's gravestone. Despite their moods, tics and whims, the five oldies somehow pull themselves together. The fun in the third phase of life seems to be just starting - when Uschi suffers a stroke. The fragile community has to come to terms with the need for care. This is not without tensions and near-disasters. Eventually Harry moves out of frustration and Uschi goes to a nursing home of her own accord. Has the Alten-WG project failed?—ARD Das Erste