The First World War and the following depression were no thread to the power of the von Essenbeck family, a clan of wealthy factory owners. Now in the year 1934 they need to arrange themselves with the new Nazi regime. The baron has summoned his family family to a dinner that also brings a cousin rising in the Nazi party to the great house accompanied by a rising manager at the baron's company. The party is suddenly interrupted when the playing children find the dead body of the Baron. The film describes the slow fall of a family that out of political opportunism cooperates with the Nazi thus accelerating its own decay.