This is the twenty-ninth film made by German director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Chance brings together an unhappy family for a long weekend at their country retreat The parents have indulged in affairs for years, blaming their infidelities on their crippled daughter but the sickness of the girl may well have been caused by the parents'philandering Both wife and husband are supposed to have gone off, in opposite directions, on a business trip When the father arrives at the house with his French mistress, he finds his wife in residence with his assistant, who is her lover Unexpectedly, the daughter arrives with her nurse The company is completed by the mother and son caretaker team of the estate.

They form a strange company, filled with distrust, envy and sadism. Over the weekend, suppressed anger and jealousies mount among the estranged family, and when they sit down to play a truth game, Chinese Roulette, their pent-up emotions produce an explosion.