For two months, Genadij, Alexej and Alexander go to theater rehearsals in the afternoons with 20 other prisoners.
All three are serving time for manslaughter and murder respectively.
The drill of the harsh and impersonal prison routine has taught them to keep their feelings under wraps, but they have to open up for acting.
A difficult process of rapprochement begins between the Berlin theater people and the young people who are hostile towards them, which ends with an unexpected surprise for both sides.