Mathias Kneissl was Bavaria's last genuine robber. The movie, based on 19th century historical sources, depicts the last year in the life of this famous outlaw and folk-hero. At the age of 23 he is released from jail after completing an unjustified sentence of six years. As this has come to be known he lost his job as a carpenter. He now goes astray to rob the money for his and his girlfriend's emigration to America. After shooting two policemen, Mathias Kneissl remains at large for a number of months. Not until he is betrayed by his girlfriend did the police track him down, hundred gendarmes surrounding the barricaded farmhouse in which he is hiding. The ensuing siege lasts several days. Finally, severely wounded, Kneissel is pulled from the farmhouse ruins. He recovers in a Munich hospital only to be beheaded in 1902. He is 26 yeras old.