Otto is a German farm lad who runs away to World War I at sixteen, is wounded before the end of the war, and believes in the very soil and soul of Germany. He follows the man who led him in trenches, into the brown shirts, and into the black garb of the Nazi SS, vowing to serve his country. He does what his country asks, following each command to the letter, and in the end, cannot understand why his country is on trial. He believes it is all a sham, another victor's punishment like the Treaty of Versailles, until he learns that priests were sent to camps and his world collapses around him, and then Otto himself is on trial.