Plot

Based on true events, the story is set in the 1970's/1980's at the boarding school "Odenwald Schule", when a newly hired young teacher (Julia Jentsch) notices pupils are being sexually abused by the staff, including the director.

Late 1970s. The 29-year-old Petra Grust enthusiastically takes up her position as a biology teacher at the Odenwald School (OSO), the legendary model institution of reform education. She honors the trust of the charismatic and famous headmaster Simon Pistorius. But everyday boarding school life is irritating. Students and teachers of both sexes use the same showers, young students drink alcohol and smoke, and one colleague even has an affair with an underage student. Petra becomes aware of 13-year-old Frank Hoffmann, who looks disturbed and obviously has problems. She takes care of him, but does not find out what is wrong with him. Over time, she has a terrible suspicion: She sees a teacher with a naked boy in the forest; she sees Pistorius leaving a shower under which a desperate Frank is crouching. Petra asks. But her colleagues don't want to know about any of this. Frank's best friend Erik is also abused by Pistorius. When he tells his mother about it, he has to drop out of school for drug possession. Frank is desperate. When he learns that he should even spend the holidays with Pistorius, he threatens to commit suicide. Petra understands more and more what Pistorius is doing to him. But Frank's father Helmut, chairman of the school's sponsoring association, prefers to believe the apparently impeccable headmaster than his son and the young teacher. Petra asks her friend, a journalist, to do research on the famous reform pedagogue. But she is ultimately powerless against Pistorius' network of relationships in the highest circles. 30 years later, Frank and Petra meet again. She never worked as a teacher again. Like the other traumatized abuse victims, Frank was unable to talk about the crimes for so long that all crimes are statute-barred. But he no longer wants to accept the years of silence on the part of teachers, parents, politicians and institutions. After the suicide of a former classmate, he is planning a protest during an anniversary event at the Odenwald School. And Petra should testify to the deeds of that time.