The year is 1945. The final battle for Vienna has begun. Hitler declares the capital of the "Ostmark", as Austria was called then, a stand-off of the Third Reich against the Red Army; a last attempt to turn the tables yet. A group of Austrian resistance fighters recognize the impossibility and enable the Russians to occupy the city - this action was known as the "Radetzky Operation" - and with it Vienna was saved from complete destruction by the Allies. The operation was headed by Carl Szokoll.

This film essay explores the strange case of G.W. Pabst, the Austrian filmmaker who was considered a giant of early cinema before his reputation went behind a cloud.