Fassbinder and Hanna Schygulla star as Franz and Joanna; he is a small-time pimp who refuses to join a crime syndicate, she is his prostitute girlfriend. Franz also has a male lover, the attractive and dangerous Bruno. Both will betray him. Fassbinder's first feature poetically parodies elements of the American gangster film and also reflects his awareness of the more self-consciously existential crime studies of Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Melville. But, with its signature title, it shows where Fassbinder's true concerns lie: “What is important to me,” he said, “is that those who see this film call into question their most deeply felt private feelings. That is more political, or more politically aggressive, I find, than showing the police as the prime oppressor.” Thus the film is dedicated to Chabrol, Rohmer, and Straub.