During the wartime occupation of Poland, small-town policeman Klos tries to exploit his ethnic German roots to achieve the trusted status of Volksdeutscher. He'll take any assignment, and is so eager for acceptance that he soon exceeds the ferocity even of his military masters. Once he kills a Pole for the first time, his few remaining scruples fade away, and he enthusiastically participates in mass arrests and on-the-spot executions. His repellent life is blunted by dimwittedness and alcohol, his home life is a shambles, and the village priest is bafflingly unsympathetic. Eventually the Polish resistance zeros in on this pathetic opportunist.