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Concentration camp survivor Susanne Wallner (Hildegard Knef) returns to her Berlin rooms to find them occupied by a squatter, the disillusioned and drunken Dr. Hans Mertens (Ernst Wilhelm Borchert). He claims that all is hopeless in a world without values, but she slowly builds a faith that he will recover and become a productive surgeon again. Susanne repairs the shattered apartment as best she can, while working on socially positive drawings. Hans is emotionally crippled because he knows that his wartime commander, Arno Paulsen (Fredinand Brueckner) committed mass murder in Poland. But the fallen doctor is unable to find the moral bearings to call the now successful factory owner to account for it. Saving a poor child from choking by performing a tracheotomy, Hans gets the courage to care about justice and face up to Paulsen - with a gun.