The film takes place at the end of 1946. Rumours are spread that the food supply will not arrive for it has been robbed. Workers of the metal factory go on strike.
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.
A social drama, it tackles the contradictions prevalent in society. Kumar, a respectable wealthy man to the outside world, in fact leads a life of debauchery.
Adapted from the novel Die Döppelgänger by Theodor Storm, this black-and-white drama tells the tragic story of a war veteran who, in 1860, returns to his home in Schleswig Holstein after serving a term for robbery.