An imaginative, symbolic drama with political overtones, Die Hamburger Krankheit postulates an affliction that is attacking the citizenry in Hamburg and threatening to spread like the bubonic plague. By coincidence, there is a medical conference taking place in the city at the time of the outbreak, and one of the doctors (Helmut Griem) does not agree with the others about how to cure the illness. Then this doctor and several others start heading South, presumably to escape the affliction. Along the way, they encounter many strange events, are stopped by "disinfectant" crews, some are gunned down, and others sell out their ideals. In the end, this undefined affliction could be of the moral variety, or philosophical, or political, or not, adding nuances to the unfolding events.