March 1912, the municipality of Radebeul near Dresden. Shortly before his death, the adventure writer Karl May tells his life story to a journalist in his 'Villa Shatterhand'. In 1842 Karl May, who was born in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, grew up in poverty, the son of a weaver and a midwife. Blind until the age of five, he suffers many misadventures and conflicts with the law until his first novel is published. But it is in his travel stories that he creates his most famous heroes: Winnetou, Old Shatterhand and Kara Ben Nemsi.