In March 1944, Nazi SS officer Erich Priebke helped organise and carry out one of the most notorious atrocities of the German occupation of Italy. Following a partisan attack that killed 33 German policemen in Rome, Nazi authorities ordered brutal reprisals. At the Ardeatine Caves, 335 prisoners and civilians were systematically executed, including political prisoners, resistance members and 75 Jews.

Priebke personally participated in the executions, helped compile the lists of victims and later defended his actions by claiming he had merely followed orders. After the Second World War, he escaped from British custody and fled to Argentina, where he lived openly for nearly fifty years.

This documentary explores Priebke's Nazi crimes, his involvement in the Ardeatine Caves Massacre, his dramatic discovery by American journalists in 1994, and his eventual extradition to Italy, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment.