At the beginning there is a chance encounter: in a camp where people wait to be relocated, the chain-smoking, drinking, weary of life Dr. Rothe meets the newly arrived Nowak. Together they hit the bar, drink heavily and fall into a hole in time that is described in flashbacks: it is 1943 and the protagonists carry differnt names.
Rothe is a scientist in a laboratory, when the Gestapo-agent Hoesch - now named Nowak - informs him that his fiancé has given away results of top secret experiments to the British. In a cold rage he kills her but is covered by Hoesch so that he can continue his experiments which are of great importance to the war effort. But Rothe can not handle his guild and commits another murder in order to be caught.
Now that Rothe has found Hoesch/Nowak so unexpectedly it is his turn to take revenge.