1945 in bombed-out Berlin: Former military surgeon Dr. Hans Mertens returns to Berlin after the war and finds his house in ruins. Suffering from war memories, he becomes an alcoholic and finds accommodation with photographer Susanne Wallner, a concentration camp survivor. When he encounters former captain Ferdinand Brückner, who had 36 men, 54 women, and 31 children from a Polish village shot in 1942, Mertens wants to get revenge.