Set during the sunset years of the Cold War, director Volker Schlöndorff's riveting thriller centers on firebrand Rita Vogt (Bibiana Beglau), a radical West German leftist who abandons the anticapitalist movement after killing a French gendarme. But after fleeing to East Germany and assuming an alias, Rita -- who soon discovers that her new comrades don't share her zeal for socialism -- lives in endless fear of having her true identity exposed.