If watching a fellow facing indifference/rejection in the slums of Berlin didn't convey enough pathos, Gerhard Lamprect gathered much of the same crew from Die Verrufenene and turned his attention to the city's population of unwanted children for the heart-tugging Die Unehelichen, released the following year. The trio of foster children at the center of Die Verrufenene are survivors who use their own resourcefulness to get by when the kids' guardians and the system itself let them down. Siblings Peter (Ralph Ludwig) and Lotte (Margo Misch) live with another little girl, Frieda (Fee Wachsmuth) under the care of an alcoholic, abusive man named Zielke (Max Maximilain) and his worn-out wife (Margarete Kupfer). Despite the hardships, Peter and Lotte manage to find some pleasure at a local street fair (resulting in some of nicely spontaneous, documentary-like scenes). When Lotte becomes sick and succumbs to pneumonia, however, the other kids are adopted out to other households: Frieda to a loving farm couple, and Peter to a kindly local woman who took pity on him and his sister. Peter isn't situated in a safe, loving home for too long, however, when his father arrives wanting to claim him. The stern-faced bargeman Schiffer Lorenz (played by Bernhard Goetzke, the lead actor from Die Verrufenene) wishes to work the 13 year-old boy on his houseboat, which prompts the frightened Peter to run away.