Set in Austria, in 1928, with the spectre of Nazism on the rise, a young Jew, Philippe Halsman, is accused of patricide after his father's death during a hike through the Alps. His strained relationship with his father, and the apparent evidence that he has been struck on the head with a rock, point towards the son's guilt. Halsman is put on trial, in Innsbruck, where his case is taken up by one of the country's leading lawyers.