Lachenmann has referred to his compositions as musique concrète instrumentale, implying a musical language that embraces the entire sound-world made accessible through unconventional playing techniques. His scores place enormous demands on performers, due to the plethora of techniques that he has invented especially for string instruments.

The film-team joins the recoding sessions of the Stadler Quartet playing String Quartets by Helmut Lachenmann from three different decades:

- 1st String Quartet “Gran Torso”, 1972
- 2nd String Quartet “Reigen seliger Geister”
  (Round Dance of Blessedly Ghosts), 1989
- 3rd String Quartet “Grido”, 2001

According to the composer, this is music "in which the sound events are chosen and organized so that the manner in which they are generated is at least as important as the resultant acoustic qualities themselves”.

Whereas the String Quartets will be filmed for the camera, the accomponaying documentary depicts the rehearsals and recording sessions which are led by Helmut Lachenmann himself and give an insight on what details the composer places emphasis and how he guides the musicians through the interpretive process.