In this German drama, Brock, a railroad inspector, witnesses a robbery at a train depot. He recognizes the thief, but turning the man in would mean acknowledging he knows him, thus revealing his own complicity with the Nazi war machine. When Brock’s daughter and her boyfriend begin to question him about the incident, will the secret he’s kept for nearly 20 years finally be exposed?
The Time Machine is purchased from an antiques store by a physician from Berlin. Much of the script plays out in one room in the Berlin villa of Dr. Erasmus Beilowski. He and his well-educated friends have an intelligent discussion about the world and the future, with a view to the Time Machine. What to use it for?
In August of 1914, amidst the public ecstasy surrounding the impending war, Hans Gastl, the young son of a Munich bürger, makes a decision: he will not take part in this war. This resolution signifies a turning point in his life; a farewell to his class and his family.
