Elaborately produced two-part TV movie about the tragic torpedo attack by the Red Army on the German refugee ship "Wilhelm Gustloff" in 1945: From the perspective of (fictional) Captain Kehding, Joseph Vilsmaier′s film tells the story how the ship started its journey in Gotenhafen with 10.000 passengers on board. After a disagreement between the ship′s captains, the ship′s navigation lights were activated on January 30, 1945, after a suspicious radio signal had warned them of oncoming traffic – a fatal decision because soon after the "Gustloff" was hit by three torpedoes from a Soviet submarine. The ship capsized, and 9000 people, among them countless children, died in the catastrophe.