- In Germany, an old man attacks another old man and is arrested. The attacker refuses to speak. A female lawyer is appointed to him. She discovers that the attacker has numbers tattooed on his arm and the attacked man was a German officer.
- In Frankfurt, Germany, a panicked and disoriented gentleman rushes through the airport and drops his wallet, but the billfold is retrieved by Tina Freund, a young girl who takes pity on the frail man and gives him a kiss on the cheek. When Tina's mother, Gabrielle Schlüter Freund, scolds the child for trusting a stranger, the man attacks a bystander who is waiting to board an airplane. Tina is accidentally knocked over in the commotion. As the assailant is escorted away by police, he apologizes to Gabrielle in an incomprehensible mixture of foreign languages and she later drops charges against him, despite her belief that he is unjustified in his violent outburst. Although Gabrielle wants nothing more to do with the assailant, she is an attorney, and when her colleagues are unable to communicate with the strange man, Gabrielle is assigned the case. Recently divorced and under consideration for a lucrative new job, Gabrielle is not interested in public defense, but she changes her mind upon meeting her new client. Gabrielle notices the mute gentlemen does not fit the profile of a violent assailant, and she wonders why his victim, a former German military commander named Arnold Krenn, is so heavily guarded by his enterprising attorney, Professor Eckert. In the coming days, Gabrielle's client's passport is uncovered at the airport and she learns that he is Aaron Reichenbach, a concentration camp survivor who immigrated to Ecuador in 1948. When Gabrielle discovers that Reichenbach was in Hamburg, Germany, in the days leading up to the assault, she visits the city and speaks to several leads, including a taxi driver who drove Reichenbach to a rose garden at Bullenhuser Road School. Reichenbach reportedly spent ten minutes in the schoolyard before demanding a rushed ride to the airport. He was on his way to Frankfurt, where he confronted Arnold Krenn. Despite the new information, Gabrielle is unable to connect Reichenbach with Krenn until the taxi driver introduces her to a journalist named Paessler, who drives her back to Bullenhuser Road. There, Paessler explains the school was used by Nazis to harbor twenty children who were subjected to brutal medical experiments. Since WWII was near its end, the Nazis were under pressure to cover up their crimes. On the night of 20 April 1945, Adolf Hitler's birthday, 20 children were hanged at the Bullenhuser camp. Years later, Bullenhuser students planted a rose garden at the site to honor the murdered children.
Paessler, who researched the children hidden at Bullenhuser Road, published a list of names that included Reichenbach's two sisters, Rachel and Ruth. Up until that time, Reichenbach had spent his life savings trying to locate his lost siblings, and when he traveled to Hamburg to meet Paessler, he discovered that Rachel was accounted for among the dead, but Ruth was still missing. As Gabrielle walks through a memorial in the school's basement, she notices a guest-book entry signed "Reichenbach" and believes it is further evidence that her client came to Bullenhuser to pay tribute to his sisters. However, she remains perplexed about Reichenbach's attack on Arnold Krenn. Just then, Paessler reveals the connection: Krenn was the Nazi Field Commander of Bullenhuser at the time of the massacre. Although Krenn was brought under investigation after the war, the charges were dropped in 1967 due to "lack of evidence," but the case was recently reopened. Gabrielle suspects Reichenbach attacked Krenn at the airport to prevent the former Nazi from leaving the country to seek asylum. Although Gabrielle fears she will be unable to defend Reichenbach because he is liable for "premeditated revenge," she accepts Paessler's dossier of research about Krenn and heads back to Frankfurt. In court the next day, prosecutor Eckert discredits Gabrielle's defense with hearsay evidence that Reichenbach attempted to intrude upon Krenn's Hamburg residence before the airport assault, indicating that Reichenbach's attack was not specifically linked to his victim's travel plans. When the judge asks Reichenbach for a response to the new charges, the man finally speaks aloud and utters: "I was there." In tears, Reichenbach shows the courtroom a tattered photograph of a young girl who he refers to as "Ruthie," and suggests that Krenn knows her whereabouts. With the trial at a standstill, Gabrielle is granted her request for postponement and sets about making a stronger defense. Despite anonymous threats from anti-Semites, Gabrielle invites Reichenbach to stay at her home and he becomes close friends with her daughter, Tina. Soon after, Reichenbach is detained and taken to the airport for extradition, but Gabrielle is able to keep him in Germany if he stays in jail. There, Reichenbach draws a picture for Tina and it reminds Gabrielle of the guest-book entry she saw at Bullenhuser Road. Returning to the school memorial, Gabrielle realizes the signature she saw on her first visit does not belong to Reichenbach, after all, but rather to a woman named "Hannah Mendel" from Berlin, Germany. Gabrielle believes the woman will finally explain the connection between Reichenbach and Krenn, and testify on her client's behalf. When Gabrielle travels to Berlin to find "Hannah Mendel," however, she learns that her prospective star witness is in Spain at an unknown location. Back in Frankfurt, Gabrielle appeals to her former husband, Herbert Freund, a high-powered attorney with political connections, and he agrees to help find "Hannah Mendel." Still, there is no sign of the woman when Reichenbach's trial begins, and the judge warns Gabrielle that she must not question Krenn about his Nazi past unless she can prove its relevance. In response, Gabrielle argues that Krenn is the only man alive who knows the fate of Reichenbach's sister, Ruth, because he was Field Commander of the Bullenhuser camp on the night of the infanticide. As Gabrielle struggles to make her case against Krenn, she is surprised by the arrival of her husband, Herbert, with an elderly woman. The judge agrees to hear the testimony of the new witness, who introduces herself as "Ruth Levy" from Spain, and Reichenbach recognizes the newcomer as his long-lost sister. After the two reunite with a tearful embrace, Ruth testifies that she escaped the transport of children to Bullenhuser, but witnessed the hangings of her fellow prisoners, including her sister, from her hiding place. In light of the new testimony, Gabrielle requests permission to question Krenn yet again. However, the judge announces that Krenn has been officially deemed "unfit for trial" due to poor health and is not required to stand witness. Although Gabrielle is unable to bring Krenn to justice, she succeeds in her defense of Reichenbach, and he is permitted to leave Germany with his newfound sister. At the airport, young Tina remembers her first encounter with Reichenbach and bids him farewell with a kiss on the cheek.
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