It is a story of wrongful condemnation for murder, and of its consequences. Leonhart Maurizius, an art historian, is found guilty of murdering his wife and condemned to death, but the sentence is commuted to life imprisonment. The public prosecutor in the case, Freiherr von Andergast, has a son Etzel, who, at the instigation of the condemned man's father, devotes himself to ascertaining the truth. He succeeds, after considerable research, in proving that Leonhart's sister-in-law, Anna Jahn, was the guilty person. Leonhart, who has served eighteen years, is pardoned. The prosecutor resigns and loses his reason. Leonhart can make nothing of his newly granted freedom and takes his own life. The sequel is Etzel Andergast.