A remote police station on the outskirts of Berlin on a sweltering summer night becomes the setting for an intense drama played out by two cops, Stecker (Alexander Radszun) and Kaminsky (Klaus Löwitsch), left alone in the soon-to-be-abandoned outpost. The capricious cruelty of the older Kaminsky, a man brutalized by a lifetime of dishonor, feeds the pent-up, cowardly animosity of his younger colleague. Rivalry over Kaminsky's wife (Hannelore Elsner) is deflected onto a young prostitute (Beate Finckh) who is brought into the station in the course of the evening, only to become the victim of the violence that has been building with painfully measured understatement. Acclaimed television director Michael Lähn in his first feature film translates tv's closeup format to the big screen, effecting an appropriate frame for his chamber-piece for four caged animals. Fine performances by all have contributed to this film's wide critical acclaim at international film festivals.