The dramatic collapse of a wealthy, industrialist/Junker family during the reign of the Third Reich.

The power and fortune of the Von Essenbeck family remained intact even when Germany lost World War I, and during the depression that followed. Now it's 1934, and the baron has summoned his family to a dinner that also brings a cousin rising in the Nazi party to the great house accompanied by a rising manager at the baron's company. Two little girls recite poetry in the parlor and then play hide-and-seek with their cousin Martin (Helmut Berger). Suddenly there is a scream. The baron has been shot with their father's gun and the father flees the country.—Dale O'Connor <[email protected]>

In the early days of Nazi Germany, a powerful noble family must adjust to life under the new dictatorship regime. The transition from democracy to dictatorship is thus dramatized through the lives of the family which also owns a powerful German industrial firm. Through the characters, this movie shows how German upper class nobility first resented Adolf Hitler, then accepted him, and at last, embraced him.—Anthony Hughes <[email protected]>