Paul Wit­tgen­stein, Aus­tri­an con­cert pi­an­ist, loses his arm at the age of twenty­sev­en, while serving as an of­ficer in the First World War. Non­ethe­less, he is set on con­tinu­ing his ca­reer. Ma­jor com­posers, such as Ravel and Strauss write con­certs for him, from which he gains in­ter­na­tion­al ac­claim. Forced to leave Aus­tria by the Nazis, he dies in New York in 1961.

Paul's fath­er, Karl Wit­tgen­stein mil­lion­aire and chief Aus­tri­an "iron and steel bar­on", de­term­ined to have his five sons fol­low in his foot­steps and be­come in­dus­tri­al­ists, he does not per­mit them to pur­sue artist­ic ca­reers. Ul­ti­mately, he will pay for his in­transigence with the lives of his three eld­est chil­dren who es­cape their fath­er's au­thor­ity by com­mit­ting sui­cide.

Fi­nally, Karl Wit­tgen­stein al­lows his two re­main­ing sons the free­dom to choose their own pro­fes­sion. Lud­wig, the young­er broth­er of Paul, turns to philo­sophy. Paul Wit­tgen­stein's bio­graphy is an ex­traordin­ary life-af­firm­ing story. It is the tale of a man who per­severes in the face of seem­ingly in­sur­mount­able obstacles and pre­vails.