A version of a play by Jean-Paul Sartre, The Condemned of Altona stars Frederic March as Albrecht von Gerlach, a wealthy German business owner with a disgraceful past as a Nazi collaborator. When Albrecht calls on his son Werner (Robert Wagner) to take over the family company, Werner refuses because of the firm's history of helping Hitler's war machine. An added complexity is Albrecht's other son Franz (Maximilian Schell), who was supposed to be tried and executed for his involvement with the Nazis but who is instead hiding from justice in the family's Altona estate.