During the post-war era in Communist East Germany in the seventies, Karen von Wagner is enjoying her life in East Berlin. She had grown up indebted and grateful to the GDR for giving her an excellent education in the arts in spite of what her father had done and was imprisoned for--guilty of war crimes as an SS Nazi. He had been arrested and taken to prison when she was barely five. At fifteen, she was told by an official he had died in Siberia. She had always been ashamed of him for his diabolical crimes and felt no remorse. In fact, she was glad he was dead.

In her schooling, she achieved high marks in most of her classes, if not all. By twenty-one, she had become East Germany's famous actress and singer and, above all, a staunch communist.

During a party in a ballroom she was hosting (her apartment in the same building), she rescues an unconscious American, Mike Whitman, from Russian robbers whom she believes had drugged him. The man is taken to her apartment by her uncle and a friend.

Her grandfather, a doctor, saves Whitman's life. But soon, all three realize the robbers are KGB agents, and Whitman is a unique CIA spy. Karen demands that her uncle and grandfather, who live with her, turn him over to the authorities. But her two and only family members are against it.

During Whitman's recovery, Karen discovers the true reason why her father was imprisoned. It was for being a pastor of an underground church in East Berlin. Her whole world turns upside down.