1937, Berlin: JACK (12) is being tutored by an expatriate American, Mildred.  As the lesson finishes she gives him a sheaf of top-secret Nazi government documents her economist husband has smuggled out of his office.  They are for Jack’s father who works at the US Embassy, tasked with the mission to connect with the underground resistance.  Jack sets out for home with the documents in his backpack but out on the street he is almost caught.

1948, Berlin: JACK (23), now a US-Army veteran arrives in post-war-ravaged Berlin hoping to re-connect with Mildred and to start a new job as a reporter for The Observer, the newspaper of the US Army occupation.

He is lodging in a grand old villa with his boss, PAUL (Major, US Army), a chatty blowhard and editor of The Observer.  Jack also meets SONJA, a beautiful painter who is using the top floor of the villa as a studio, making mysterious paintings of men without faces. Sonja agrees to be Jack’s guide in Berlin and accompanies him to the last address he has for Mildred. They discover her apartment has been abandoned but Jack finds an old address book hidden in a secret compartment. An old neighbor refuses to recognize him and turns aggressive.  When she calls for the police Jack and Sonja escape.  

Using the address book Jack tracks down GRETA, a friend of Mildred’s, who gives him critical information and cryptic warnings. Meanwhile, Sonja entangles herself in contradictions. Jack begins to suspect she’s a former Nazi.  On a night out on the town Jack, Paul and Sonja discover a former nightclub and Sonja makes a plan to launch an artist’s cabaret here.

Through Greta he learns that Mildred lost her life resisting Hitler as part of a group of anti-fascist activists the Gestapo called “The Red Orchestra”. She was tortured, guillotined, and is now being defamed in post-war Germany as a communist traitor. Jack decides to write an article for the Observer revealing the truth about Mildred’s heroism. He locates ROEDER, the former Nazi-prosecutor who ordered Mildred’s torture and execution.  

However, to get to Roeder Jack needs Sonja’s help to make a perilous journey through the occupied Soviet zone which is prohibited for American civilians. After a close call with a Soviet army unit and more of Sonja’s suspicious behavior, they arrive in Roeder’s hometown and find him holding a Neo-Nazi rally.  Roeder is inflaming the audience against the former resistance fighters, proudly smearing the survivors as communist spies. When Jack confronts him, havoc breaks out in the hall. In the confusion Sonja tries to shoot Roeder but her gun jams. Jack and Sonja are chased by two of Roeder’s bodyguards and make a narrow escape. 

On the drive back to Berlin.  Sonja shares her true story with Jack through a series of flashbacks. She was part of the resistance to Hitler, was able to hide her Jewish identity, and she narrowly escaped capture herself.  When they return to the villa they are confronted by Paul, who fires Jack for helping – albeit unwittingly – Sonja’s failed assassination attempt because the CIA now considers Roeder an anti-communist ally. 

Jack begins to help Sonja prepare for her cabaret show but CIA operatives arrest him. In a threatening interrogation they force Jack to agree to spy on Sonja, who they think is a communist agitator. After his release it is unclear if Jack was swayed by their arguments. But It turns out that instead he tricked the printer of the Observer into putting his article about Mildred’s heroism on the front page. He joins Sonja’s troupe for performances where they confront the post-war audience with the recent past and celebrate the survival of art.