A young German-American man returns to a defeated Germany in the latter half of 1945 full of good will, idealism and a job as a sleeping car conductor with the sprawling Zentropa railways company. He falls in love with the daughter of the former Nazi-sympathazing head of Zentropa, and is entangled in the economic and nationalistic terror of the post-war period.

A young German-American man returns to a defeated Germany in the latter half of 1945 full of good will, idealism and a job as a sleeping car conductor with the sprawling Zentropa railways company. He falls in love with the daughter of the former Nazi-sympathazing head of Zentropa, and is entangled in the economic and nationalistic terror of the post-war period.