Widow Erdmann has five sons. Oskar is her problem child. He lies, cheats, is a black marketeer and wastes all his money. When his brothers join the army in the First World War he refuses to serve claiming: "It is too terrible - I want to live!"
A secret agent incites him to blow up an ammunition depot. Disappointed by the behaviour of her son his mother tries to prevent the crime but is brutally beaten by her son with a rubber trancheon. When a guard opens fire she is deadly wounded.

"At the deathbed of widow Erdmann her children kneel. Beneath soldiers are marching singing the German national anthem "German women, German fidelity!" ... The children cry aloud - the heart of a German mother has stopped beating" (original summary).