It is the final film of Rossellini's War Trilogy made in 1948, taking place in postwar Germany.

As in many neorealist films, Rossellini used mainly local, non-professional actors. He filmed on locations in Berlin. It contains dramatic images of bombed out Berlin and of the human struggle for survival following the destruction of the Third Reich.

Edmund, a young boy who lives in war-devastated Germany after the Second World War has to do all kinds of work and tricks to help his family in getting food and barely survive. One day he meets a man who used to be one of his teachers in school and hopes to get support from him, but the ideas of this man do not lead Edmund in a clearer or safer way of living...