这是一部基于真实故事改编的电影。连环杀手彼得因多项谋杀罪被捕，等待他的将是严酷审判。英俊，精明的年轻律师维尔纳欲证明其天性疯狂，四处搜寻举证，却被引入歧途，几近走火入魔。 影片深刻探讨了“杀人恶魔”是天生的性情使然还是后天压抑所至，人类心灵的变态和社会环境的扭曲有何关联等问题。

Liesel Landauer and her friend Hana are linked by a lifelong relationship and an exceptional house built by the architect Von Abt for Liesel and her husband Viktor in Czechoslovakia in the early 1930s.

In 1939, Czech diplomat Jan Masaryk flees to the United States to escape his recent past: Germany has invaded Czechoslovakia and he is now a man with no nation; because, as the Czechoslovak ambassador in London, he failed to win the support of the British and could not avert the fall of his country and the outbreak of the World War II.