[citation needed] Maximilian Berber (Max), a promiscuous gay man in 1930s Berlin, is at odds with his wealthy family because of his homosexuality.

One evening, much to the resentment of his boyfriend Rudolph Hennings (Rudy), he brings home a handsome Sturmabteilung man, Wolfgang Granz (Wolf).

Wolf is discovered the next morning and killed by SS men in Max and Rudy's apartment, and the two have to flee their home.

Greta is a drag queen; she ran her own gay club, which is newly shut down (implicitly due to, at the time, new Paragraph 175 enforcements).

Max is taken by the guards and lies to them, telling them that he is a Jew rather than a homosexual, because he believes his chances for survival in the camp will be better if he is not assigned the pink triangle.

Max later confesses, to the same prisoner from the train, that the guards then forced him to have intercourse with the body of a dead pre-teen girl to "prove" he was not homosexual.