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Vice Lieutenant Eismayer is the most feared trainer and model macho in the Austrian Military and lives as a gay man in secret. When he falls in love with a young, openly gay soldier, his world gets turned upside down. Based on real events.

Sergeant Major Eismayer, the toughest training officer in the Austrian Armed Forces, has a secret he carefully hides from public view: he is homosexual. When he falls in love with a recruit, his artificial heteronormative existence is shaken to the core. To a man like Eismayer, a gay relationship cannot be reconciled with the traditional understanding of what a soldier should be. Will he preserve his image of a tough-as-nails man's man or follow his heart? Is there some way to do both? Based on real events.—Golden Girls Film

Tough, tougher, Eismayer! Among recruits to the Austrian Armed Forces, Sergeant Major Eismayer (Gerhard Liebmann) is known as the strictest and most unforgiving of the training officers. Any soldier who refuses to display total obedience or the high level of discipline Eismayer expects is bound to suffer. Eismayer is a soldier through and through and demands complete and utter commitment from the men he trains - to exhaustion and beyond. Those who fail are subject to merciless tirades, and Eismayer's iron toughness has made him a living legend. In order to preserve his reputation, Eismayer carefully hides an aspect of himself from public view: he is homosexual. His sexual encounters with men take place in secret, unknown to his wife (Julia Koschitz), his son and his comrades. One day he is assigned a new recruit, Mario Falak (Luka Dimic). Mario is openly gay and challenges Eismayer's authority at every possible opportunity. The initially strained relationship between the two men soon develops into a deep love which gives Eismayer the confidence to come out to his wife. She moves out of the shared apartment, taking their son with her. Mario moves in. When Eismayer is diagnosed with lung cancer, Mario not only takes care of him; he also subjects Eismayer to a strict training regime of the kind the sergeant major once forced on others. The training pays off and Eismayer recovers from his illness and returns to work at the barracks. However, he is relieved of his duties as a training officer as a result of his weakened physical state. He continues to keep his relationship with Mario a secret from his comrades, but Mario is tired of the deception and proposes to Eismayer, hoping to enter into a civil partnership with the man he loves. Eismayer turns him down, terrified by the idea that he may lose his reputation, but Mario refuses to take no for an answer.