In his first 16mm film, Christoph Schlingensief plays the German national anthem on the trumpet! An expression of a deep life crisis after being rejected by the Munich Film Academy.

Returnee Willy von Mühlenbeck has to realize that his evil brother Martin has risen to become the head of the industrialist family, while their ailing mother is in the hands of sinister doctors. When he falls in love with the terminally ill Els, fate takes a tragic course.