Romantic triangle love story set during World War I.
Richard and Karl are German prisoners of war in Siberia. Richard misses his wife Anna greatly. When he decides to escape, Karl comes with him. While crossing a desert Richard collapses. He asks Karl to go on without him, but Karl refuses to leave his friend and carries him. But when Karl leaves to get water, Richard is recaptured. Karl makes it back to Hamburg, where he meets Anna and occupies a spare room in her flat. Soon friendship deepens, and both he and Anna have guilt feelings about their attraction. Meanwhile the war ends, and Richard returns just in time to witness Karl and Anna's first kiss. Richard tries to win back his wife but fails. Driven by rage and anger Richard decides to kill Karl. But as he holds the gun to Karl´s head, he recalls his friend´s carrying him across the desert and puts the pistol away. Realizing that "Nobody´s to blame," Richard leaves Karl and Anna to each other and returns to his other great passion, life at sea on one of the great freighters that sail from Hamburg.