February 27, 1933. The Reichstag, the German parliament burns and democracy with it. The fire immediately served as a pretext for the establishment of the dictatorship of Hitler, who had become Chancellor the previous month. Within hours, thousands of opponents were interned in the first Nazi concentration camps.

Five men are found guilty, including one found alone inside the burning Reichstag. The recordings of their trial, gathered for this film 90 years later, lift the veil on one of the last mysteries of the 20th century: who set fire to the Reichstag?