A brutal attack on the homeless Lennard in downtown Frankfurt links the fate of three women: Irina, a 28-year-old nurse, has witnessed the violence. The young Sam lives on the street. She was protected by Lennard after she was beaten up in search of food. The single mother Anne is from the clouds when her 18-year-old son Rio is led away by the police. He is accused of involvement in the violence against Lennard. This is hard to understand for Anne; she struggles to get her son to talk.

In the young Federal Republic of Germany, which in the late 1950s in politics and justice is still interspersed with only superficially purified Nazi cliques, leads the Hessian Attorney General Fritz Bauer a lonely fight against the coverup of Nazi crimes and the restorative policy of the government Adenauer - he is firmly convinced that only in this way can the young democracy be consolidated. Not only his attitude, but also his temperament make Bauer vulnerable, again and again resistance forms from politics, intelligence services and the judiciary against the lone fighter.