Drama based on a play by Friedrich Wolf. Hete is pregnant, hoping to have soon a family with her fiancé Paul. When the factory, where she and Paul work, sacks all striking workers, she tries to find a legal way for abortion. But there is only the illegal option - the eponymous cyanide. An important document of the Weimar Republic and a document of the dawn of the talkies - though mostly a silent movie, the last two scenes were already filmed with sound.