The historical drama tells the story of the notorious robber Franz Matzeder. Matzeder, who was born in 1810, roamed Old Bavaria until 1851, when he was finally caught in Straubing and sentenced to death by beheading with a sword. During his creative period he robbed and murdered his way through the country. He gathered more and more ambivalent riffraff around him and eventually became their leader. Wanted by the gendarmerie for years, he managed to escape again and again, because he found shelter with like-minded people. It was only when wanted posters were distributed and a bounty issued that things started to get tighter for Matzeder, until a landlady finally betrayed him in an inn near Gergweis, so that the gendarmerie was able to overpower Matzeder.
