故事发生在一间位于德国的女子学院中，伯恩博格（莉莉·帕尔默 Lilli Palmer 饰）是在那里执教的女教师，她的温柔和善良令她深受学校里女生们的喜爱。伯恩博格有一个习惯，那就是在女孩子们睡觉之前，给她们每人一个晚安吻，这个单纯的吻，对于其中一个名叫玛努薇拉（罗密·施奈德 Romy Schneider 饰）的女孩来说有着别样的意义。
在冥冥之中，伯恩博格和玛努薇拉相互吸引着，在戏剧节的庆祝会上，玛努薇拉终于无法掩饰自己对老师的爱情，向伯恩博格表白了。校长（特蕾泽·吉泽 Therese Giehse 饰）将玛努薇拉的这些举动看做是一种疾病，将后者关在了医务室里。

Director Wolfgang Staudte who left East Germany in 1953 to make movies in West Germany, takes a few swipes at the West German judicial system in this fairly effective courtroom drama about the murder of a four-month-old baby. Police almost immediately arrest the mother Ingrid who is the mistress of the father, a rich business VIP married to another woman. His position and wealth keep him insulated from suspicion. A hot-shot lawyer has to overcome the unaccountably biased perceptions of the police, the judge, the prosecutor and almost everyone else in the judicial system. The defence lawyer, driven to an extreme, knows he has to find the real killer or his client will be convicted.