The film opens looking down from the Heavens at the tiny pin-people below. The camera then drifts downwards until the people attending the rally are visible. Hitler and his cohorts arrive at the Nuremberg airport, emerging from the plane to cheers and applause. He is driven through the streets of Nuremberg that are now thronging with people waiting just to catch a glimpse of their leader whom the looks on the faces show that they clearly revere.
There is then a montage scene, showing attendees getting ready for the opening of the Nazi Party Congress (the Nuremberg Rally). People are excited, ecstatic, clearly filled with adrenalin. Richard Wagner's imposing and military-esque music plays in the background of the montage. Wagner was Hitler's favorite composer and his music was inspirational to the Reich.
The Nazi leaders arrive at the Luitpold Arena where the rally will be held, then the film cuts abruptly to show Rudolf Hess, one of Hitler's trusted inner circle, opening the rally. The most powerful Nazis are introduced, one by one, and their rousing speeches shown. They include Alfred Rosenberg, Julius Streicher and Joseph Goebbels.
Another cut, this time to a scene outside, where there is a secondary rally for the Labor Service. It looks much like a military exercise, but the men performing are not military men, but laborers. The film shows how everything is militarized by Hitler. He gives a speech praising the Labor Service and declares that they are the men who are instrumental in the rebuilding of Germany; not just physical rebuilding, which of course their shovels and spades visually demonstrate, but the emotional and character rebuilding as well. He rouses those who can join the Labor Service to do so by stressing its importance, and the pride participation in it can carry.
A Storm Detachment parade is the next event shown. The Storm Detachment was a paramilitary unit who provided protection for Hitler in person, and also for his rallies, and played an important role in his dictatorship. The commander of the Storm Detachment was a man named Viktor Lutze, and he speaks to the crowd by torchlight, giving him a supernatural appearance, and making the Nazi party seem something more than human when on the screen.
A rally of the Hitler Youth on the parade ground begins day three of the Congress. The Hitler Youth was the children and youth organization affiliated with the Nazi Party and children as young as ten swore their devotion to Hitler by serving. Many of the most efficient informers turned out to be Hitler Youth members. After the parade, there are more arrivals, and more Nazi officials are introduced. Hitler addresses his Hitler Youth using military references; he tells them they must toughen up and make sacrifices for the good of Germany. The day takes on an even more military tone with a military "parade" and review led by Hitler's defense force, the Wehrmacht. Another torchlight speech closes the day, and Hitler tells lower-ranking officials that there is now no separation of Nazi Party and the state - they are one.
The film rises to a climax during the fourth day of the Congress. Hitler walks through a panorama of troops with over one hundred and fifty thousand of them flanking him on both sides. He lays a wreath at the World War One memorial at the end of the walk. He then watches the forces parade in front of him; this emphasizes the magnitude of his power.
Hitler and Lutze then deliver speeches where they address the Night of the Long Knives. This was also called Operation Hummingbird, and it was a purge that took place over four days in 1934 when Hitler, with the support of Himmler and Goring, had a series of executions of his political rivals in the party carried out without any kind of trial process occurring before it. The two consecrate new party flags; they touch the same flag that was said to have been carried by Nazis at the Munich Putsch, which was a failed attempt at a coup by Hitler to take power in 1923. After the consecration of the flag there is another parade in front of the Church of Our Lady. Then another speech; Hitler re-affirms the rule of the Nazi Party, support of which is necessary to demonstrate loyalty to the country. He announces that all loyal Germans will become National Socialists and only the best of the best will be considered party comrades.
Rudolf Hess leads the crowd in a final, terrifying mass salute to Hitler, chanting "Sieg Heil" before singing the Horst-Wessel-Lied. The camera closes in on the giant banner bearing the swastika, then blurs focus, so that the line of men wearing Nazi party uniforms become nothing but silhouettes against the banner, blowing in the wind.
