Abbé Kremer is released from a living hell in the Dachau concentration camp and sent home to Luxembourg. Upon his arrival, he soon learns that this is not a reprieve or a pardon of his crime - voicing oppositions to the Nazi's racial laws - but that he has nine days to convince the bishop of Luxembourg to work with the Nazi occupiers. Gestapo Untersturmführer Gebhardt is under pressure from his superior to have the Abbé succeed in creating a rift between the Luxembourg church and the Vatican - or be transferred to duty in the death camps in the East. Gebhart a former Catholic seminarian, uses theological arguments to bring the Abbé around but when they don't work, he resorts to more draconian measures.The Abbé is torn between his conscience and his horror of returning to Dachau.