The people involved - three soldiers and their corporal lying in a bombed-out church and vacillating between rebellion and submission - are actors on two levels: people of our time and biblical figures in their dreams. In this way everyone receives a meaning that goes beyond the real being. The four dreams - Tim Meadows' dream of Cain's fratricide of Abel, David King's dream of Absalom's rebellion against King David and Absalom's death, Peter Able's dream of the sacrifice of Isaac and the shared dream of the three men in the fiery furnace - show not only Old Testament events , but also make its general and timeless validity visible: salvation only through sacrifice.