[3] For this film Vittorio De Sica won the Academy of Italian Cinema's David di Donatello award for Best Director.

[4] The industrialist Albrecht von Gerlach realizes he's close to death and summons his son Werner, a lawyer, whom he wants to appoint as his successor.

Werner hesitates because he knows their family firm supported Nazism, leading to the execution of his brother Franz for war crimes.

Meanwhile, Werner's wife Johanna, an actress involved in an anti-Nazi play by Brecht, discovers Franz is alive and hiding in their family home in Altona.

Franz's meeting with Johanna changes his perspective as he learns of Germany's divided state, one part rebuilt while the other languishes.