A Jew who is executed as a henchman of the SS, and a philosopher who fights against the Nazis with a weapon: the life paths of Paul Raphaelson (1906-1947) and Hans Jonas (1903-1993) could hardly be more divergent. Born almost simultaneously as sons of Jewish manufacturing families in Mönchengladbach, they seemed destined for carefree careers. However, amid the turmoil of the Weimar Republic and under the terror of the Nazi regime, their lives take different directions. The emigrant Hans Jonas enters the war as an Allied soldier. Paul Raphaelson, impoverished and harassed by the Gestapo, becomes a torturer as a supervisor in a labor camp in the Theresienstadt ghetto. After the war, the two men meet again in their hometown. Jonas wants to help clarify the guilt of Raphaelson, who is wanted as a war criminal. This endeavor leads to a profound moral confrontation.