Berlin, 1932. The Weimar Republic is torn apart in the struggle between right- and left-wing extremists and Berlin is a powder keg. Nightclub singer Henny Dalgow get to know the Social Democratic congressman and Jewish doctor Albert Goldman, and the two become a slightly odd couple. Albert is a sworn pacifist after his experiences in the First World War. Contrary to his beliefs he agrees to act as courier for his brother Edwin, who belongs to a radical communist cell.
Berlin’s notorious Neukoelln district. The near future. A time in which the health system has collapsed. A man works in the shadows and without license as a doctor. He has no practice, no appointments system. He treats people in the courtyards and streets – everywhere he’s needed, stealing medicine from pharmacies. Nobody knows his name or that by day he’s the caretaker of a shabby tenement building. He pushes boundaries and suffers defeats that cost him the last of his strength. Forced to adopt the role of a shadow, an outlaw, he is confronted with the question as to whether he really is a doctor.