In the early 60s, Bernward Vesper and fellow university student Gudrun Ensslin begin a passionate love in the stifling atmosphere of provincial West Germany. Dedicated to the power of the written word, Bernward and Gudrun found a publishing house whose first publication is, paradoxically to many, a controversial past work of Bernwards ostracized father, an infamous Nazi author. Bernward defends his fathers writing ability, even if he is haunted by his fathers suspicious past.