Franz Walter has just completed his engineering degree when the East German foreign intelligence agency makes him an offer. Dazzled by the many privileges that the new job brings, Franz accepts. He and his girlfriend move into the apartment provided by the spy agency and begin to settle into a comfortable new life. But his tasks become more and more horrid. When a work assignment suddenly requires Franz to resort to means that he cannot reconcile with his conscience, he decides to call it quits, but the Stasi won’t let him go.

Inspired by the true life and death story of a GDR citizen, Lars Eidinger shines in this subtle portrait of a man of many high and low aspirations, crushed by the times and politics.