In the summer of 1936, Janna, a young Dutch fencer, is sent away to stay with her father’s old friend, a German, Egon von Bötticher. Egon had returned injured and embittered from the front at the end of the First World War, and now teaches fencing, and organizes bloody duels. In this strange world, Janna, intrigued by her unfeeling maître d'armes, starts looking for answers. What happened between Egon and her father? Which of them has to settle old scores?