The young Walter Retzlow, drafted into the guard team of a foreign labor factory in the last year of the war, receives the papers of a murdered anti-fascist by chance. He adopts the new identity, which promises him security.

New cooling towers are to be built for the power station in the small village of Zaspenhain. The work is being carried out by builders from Poland, including Jerzy. Gitta, a young woman from Zaspenhain, works at the power station as a laboratory assistant. When the Polish construction workers arrive, she falls in love with Jerzy. But then the past intervenes...