Fred Hoffman is an American church volunteer in 1950 postwar Germany serving as a missionary, where the thunder of bombs has been followed by the clash of ideas. Fred encounters and helps a young German boy, Willy, whose family are refugees now living in squalor. Papa Koerner is a former city councilor and member of the Nazi Party who still believes the state should be the source for all authority and that all Germans should not be paying the price for the evils committed by the nazis.