A cynical detective and a Roman Catholic bishop team up to investigate the reported miraculous powers of a 17-year-old girl being held captive in the home of her father, an ailing syndicate kingpin.
The children Sonja and Helmut Schmitt have lost their parents in a car accident. At first, their grandmother takes over the supervision and care of the two.
A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs the ward.