May 1945 in the Tyrolean Alps: severely wounded SS soldier Anton deserts and drags himself to a remote mountain pasture. Hannah, a Jewish woman on the run, is already hiding there. Out of pure survival instinct, she reluctantly tends to his wounds while the last battles between German troops and Italian partisans rage outside. Distrust, anger and a fragile form of compassion grow between the two in the confines of the hut - until Anton's former comrade Georg turns up and takes the war into the mountains one last time. The Deserter is a claustrophobic chamber play about guilt, responsibility and the question of whether something like rapprochement or forgiveness is even possible between perpetrator and victim.