 When Susanne Wallner returns home from a concentration camp in 1945, she finds the city of Berlin in total ruins. What s more, the traumatized and cynical surgeon Dr. Mertens has occupied her apartment and refuses to leave. While she tries to begin living her life again, he feels unable to perform as a doctor and instead drowns his memories in self-pity and alcohol. Against the desolate backdrop of the destroyed city, a love story develops. Things are put to the test when Dr. Mertens finds out that the former Hauptmann Brückner, an unscrupulous opportunist who ordered the execution of many innocent women and children, resides nearby.