Carpenter Tillmann Rutenschneider has been on the road for years, but in 1932, he finally arrives back in his home village with a foreign wife. The couple build a home together and start a family, but it isn't long before they fall victim to the new Race Laws. Tillmann's family is killed in an arson attack and he is sent to a concentration camp.

After his release, Tillman returns to his village and tries to rebuild his life by starting a new family and creating a collective with a group of resettlers. When he falls into debt, he is forced to sell his house and is sent to jail. Once he has served his sentence, he once again sets off for his home village...

Based on Bernhard Seeger's novel Der Harmonikaspieler (The Harmonica Player).