Drama set in East Berlin prior to the fall of the communist government. Captain Gerd Weiser (Ulrich Muhe) is assigned to surveillance duties, specifically to collect information on popular dramatist Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and his actress partner Christa Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). As he becomes more and more submerged in their lives, Weiser's own attitudes to life, politics and the state begin to change, and it's not long before he finds himself in a dangerous situation.