In the young Federal Republic of Germany, which in the late 1950s in politics and justice is still interspersed with only superficially purified Nazi cliques, leads the Hessian Attorney General Fritz Bauer a lonely fight against the coverup of Nazi crimes and the restorative policy of the government Adenauer - he is firmly convinced that only in this way can the young democracy be consolidated. Not only his attitude, but also his temperament make Bauer vulnerable, again and again resistance forms from politics, intelligence services and the judiciary against the lone fighter.

When the farm boy Felix is born with a caul, the rumor spreads in no time that this boy can succeed in anything. One day he would even marry the princess - he just has to trust in his own destiny. But the king and alchemist Ottokar, however is obsessed only with gold and wealth, seeks to kill the child, by throwing him in a river.