The infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who performed unethical medical experiments and is considered to be personally responsible for the selection of mass groups of detainees to be murdered in the gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp, comes back from his hideout in Argentina as an 87-year-old man who is in his last days. Back in Germany, he must face trial for his crimes. Peter Rohm, a young solicitor and expert on Mengele, has to defend him. But Rohm feels unable to do so; when he decides to take on the case he endangers not only the relationship to his wife but also their very lives.