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A Wehrmacht military training school in World War II: First Lieutenant Krafft has a strong sense of justice. This has often brought him into disrepute with his previous superiors, and Krafft has been transferred several times as a punishment. With his new position in an officer training school, he hopes to survive the war and tries to avoid further conflicts. However, Krafft is entrusted by his general with an investigation - a supervisory officer was torn apart by an explosive charge during an engineer exercise. Although the chief judge considers the man's death to be an accident, Krafft reconstructs the events and proves that it was a case of murder. Ensign Hochbauer, who is well-liked by the party, is said to have deliberately shortened the fuse during the explosives exercise, as a result of which the supervisory officer was unable to get to safety in time. Krafft opens proceedings against the convinced National Socialist Hochbauer and puts his trust in Ensign Böhmke, who is supposed to incriminate the murderer. Böhmke, a pastor's son, is blackmailed by the accused and only after much hesitation does he retract his false testimony. Hochbauer then commits suicide without confessing to the murder he is accused of. After this incident, the chief magistrate begins to twist the facts and tries to bring down Krafft - Böhmke only accused Hochbauer of murder because of his National Socialist views and First Lieutenant Krafft is partly to blame for his death. The general's apartment is then searched. Incriminating material is discovered that exposes the general as a traitor who helped plan an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. Böhmke and the general are arrested. Krafft, who does not want to accept punishment from Böhmke for his honesty, then attacks the judge and is shot by members of the Gestapo. The dead Hochbauer is buried as a victim of subversive activities.