During a visit to the cinema in West Berlin, high school students Theo and Kurt (Tom Gramenz) see dramatic newsreel footage of the Hungarian uprising in Budapest. Back at school in Stalinstadt, they spontaneously decide to hold a moment of silence in solidarity with the victims of the uprising. The gesture causes bigger ripples than expected. The People's Educational Minister (Burghart Klaußner, THE WHITE RIBBON) condemns the action as counterrevolutionary and demands at the ringleader be named within a week. But the students stick together, facing a decision that will change their lives forever.