The film deals with the Nanking Massacre committed by Japanese troops during the Second Sino-Japanese War. China in December 1937. The Japanese army occupies the Chinese capital Nanking. After the remaining Chinese soldiers and prisoners of war were brutally murdered, cruel encroachments begin on the population of the city. Japanese soldiers rape thousands of women and the bloodshed continues with arbitrary mass executions. Despite the attempts of foreign businessmen, among them the German John Rabe, to save the civilian population in a protection zone, thousands of innocent people, men as well as women and children, are killed. The film regards the events from different perspectives, from the view of the Nanking citizens, the Chinese soldiers, but also on the part of the Japanese troops. Thus besides the suffering of the civilians, the experiences of the young Japanese soldier Kawosaka are described, who faces the terrific atrocities helplessly and is finally broken by them.