Courage and civil courage in the face of fateful challenges: two strong personalities - an incomparable book. Germany 1934. The National Socialists are solidifying their influence in politics and society. Even mountaineering is not untouched by this. The struggle for the eight-thousanders has begun, and one of the greatest disasters in alpine history is looming at Nanga Parbat. Against this backdrop, two extraordinary personalities meet: Käthe Schmid and Hermann Hoerlin. Hoerlin is one of the best climbers of his time, an emerging physicist, and a high-ranking official in the German Alpine Club, who is fiercely opposing the Nazification of science and club culture. Käthe Schmid, together with her husband, the renowned journalist Willi Schmid, forms a guiding star of the intellectual bourgeoisie in Munich.