Reinhard Karl was the first German to stand on the summit of Mount Everest, freed the climbing difficulty scale from its six-part corset and broke new grounds in mountain photography and Alpine literature. He was a dropout and a climber, could and wanted more than just repair cars. In climbing and mountaineering he found a vehicle for him in which develop. In 2021 he would celebrate his 75th birthday. In seven chapters, this film follows Reinhard Karl’s life, from his childhood and youth in Heidelberg, through his years of fame to the summit of Fitz Roy, where his long search for himself came to an end, before he died several months later.