Leonard
Marnham is assigned to a British-American surveillance team in Cold War
Berlin. His intelligence work—tunneling under a Russian communications
center to tap the phone lines to Moscow—offers him a welcome opportunity
to begin shedding his own unwanted innocence, even if he is only a bit
player in a grim international comedy of errors. Leonard's relationship
with Maria Eckdorf, an enigmatic and beautiful West Berliner, likewise
promises to loosen the bonds of his ordinary life. But the promise turns
to horror in the course of one terrible evening—a night when Leonard
Marnham learns just how much of his innocence he's willing to shed.