In one of the first attempts to critique the idealized, pastoral imagery of the German Heimatfilm genre, director Reinhard Hauff provides a much darker portrait of turn-of-the century peasant life. The members of the Kneissl clan are outcasts living in seclusion in a ramshackle mill outside Munich. After their father is savagely beaten to death, Mathias and his siblings attempt to maintain a meager existence on the fringe of society only to find hostility and brutality. The supporting cast features an array of Fassbinder regulars including Irm Hermann, Eva Mattes, Kurt Raab, and Fassbinder himself.