Before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, East Germany’s population was closely monitored by the State Secret Police. Gerd Wiesler, an agent of the Stasi, the East German Secret Police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Elise sits next to an American tourist, Frank, on a train going to Venice. She has chosen him as a decoy, making believe that he is her lover who is wanted by police. Not only will they need to evade the police, but also the mobster whose money her lover stole.
German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.