Heinrich Himmler rose from a failed chicken farmer and minor Nazi Party functionary to become Reichsführer-SS, the man who built and ran the organization responsible for the Holocaust. The film traces his path through the Nazi Party's early years, his consolidation of control over the SS and the Gestapo, and his oversight of the concentration camp system and the Final Solution. Archival photographs and wartime footage carry much of the account, showing Himmler alongside Hitler at rallies and inspections, and narration lays out how a man with no military background became one of the most powerful and feared figures in the Third Reich. The film follows his fall from favor after secret negotiations with the Allies late in the war, his capture by British forces, and his suicide by cyanide before he could face trial. It is a straightforward historical account of how bureaucratic ambition and ideological fanaticism combined in one of the architects of Nazi genocide.