Kurt Gerber, an intelligent high school student is in his senior year. He is burdend with personal and scolastic problems. Since his weak subject is math, Professor Kupfer who teaches his course and is also his class teacher, uses every occasion to humiliate the bright and self-assured boy. Even though the odds are against him, Kurt fights back and his struggle with the sadistic teacher develops into a matter of life and death. A faithful version of the best-seller novel by Friedrich Torberg which was published in 1930.