Young Sonja is accused of murdering her boyfriend Manfred. The film reveals her background, which remains hidden in court: the half-orphan girl becomes pregnant by Manfred, has an abortion and is sent to a reformatory for it. Manfred gets her pregnant again and then leaves her; desperate and humiliated, she shoots him. In court she remains defiant and silent. On the last day of the hearing, a deus ex machina appears: the figure skater Hans-Jürgen Bäumler, Sonja's great idol, descends from the sky and floats with her over the roofs of Regensburg.