The ten-year-old Hans is despatched on the orders of his politically-crazed school headmaster to the Nazi euthanasia clinic AM SPIEGELGRUND, from which he later manages to escape.
In 1955, as a result of the trauma he suffered as a child he loses first his girlfriend, and then ultimately his liberty. Having punched his former headmaster to the ground, in prison he has a renewed encounter with former Nazi physician Dr. Mannhart. Mannhart, now a successful court expert, and aware that Hans is a dangerous witness to his murderous past, arranges for Hans to be removed to a psychiatric ward.

As a result of political intervention, Hans is released from detention, but Mannhart continues to go unpunished.

Then in 1970, Hans - himself now a psychiatrist - and Mannhart end up confronting each other face to face in court.