Widower Paul always delayed talking to his daughter about sex. But when workers on a nearby construction site are falling down their scaffold because 16 years old "Herzblatt" is tanning naked, he feels he has to take action. In the hope she'll learn herself what consequences the difference between boys and girls has, he tries to get her a boyfriend.

At an Austrian boys' boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing to help a victimized classmate—until the torture goes too far. Adapted from Robert Musil's acclaimed novel, Young Törless launched the New German Cinema movement and garnered the 1966 Cannes Film Festival International Critics' Prize for first-time director Volker Schlöndorff.