16 year old Axel falls out with his step-father and becomes involved in a neonazi gang. To join the gang he has to prove himself by killing a social worker. He runs away and takes refuge in a dry-cleaning shop run by 80-year-old Gustav Tritzinsky. Axel reminds Gustav of the lover he had during the war, his first love whom he betrayed to the Gestapo, so to atone for that betrayal he takes Axel in. Now Axel has to choose between his homophobic street friends and the friendship and obsession of a homosexual old man.