Burdened with the difficult task of providing for his family in Allied-occupied post-World War II Berlin, brave 12-year-old Edmund Köhler scrapes by on whatever he can find in the war-battered streets. Undoubtedly, this is a great responsibility, but with his father too sick to get out of bed and his older ex-Nazi brother Karl-Heinz hiding from the authorities, he is the family's only chance of survival. So the innocent and desperate boy must soon accept his former teacher Herr Henning's risky proposition. He seems to still be nostalgic for the old days--can an unrepentant Nazi's venom still be potent?—Nick Riganas