Based on a true story, Stephan Wagner's thriller focuses on a man and his fight against the East German secret service. After an escape attempt, Wolfgang Stein is sentenced to ten years in prison, but is finally ransomed by the West German government in 1971. Dieter Michaelis, another refuge, asks him to help an East German fellow-sufferer to flee the country via Bulgaria. This is the beginning of Stein's efforts to outsmart the agents of the East German "Staatssicherheit" again and again, until they finally try to eliminate him...