The two brothers Werner and Richard 'Ritchie' Mark, both writers, become mortal enemies during the war and post-war period. While the more talented Werner was banned from writing after the war due to his proximity to the Nazi regime and now protects former National Socialists from discovery, Ritchie runs a strip club together with the Jew Boris Minski and tries to find his way back to his old form as a writer. The apparent murder or suicide attempt on Lillian Lombard, who plays a major role in the lives of both brothers, crosses their paths again and plunges them into a perfidious fight for life and death.