Hans, a ten-year-old boy, is dispatched on the orders of his politically crazed school headmaster to the Nazi euthanasia clinic Am Spiegelgrund, from which he later manages to escape. Ten years later, in 1955, as a result of the trauma he suffered as a child, Hans loses first his girlfriend, and then ultimately his liberty. Having punched his former headmaster to the ground, in prison he had 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, fifteen years later, Hans--himself now a psychiatrist--and Mannhart end up confronting each other face to face in court.