An American scientist is sent by the CIA to East Germany to retrieve a secret microfilm from a Soviet scientist interested in defecting to the West but the Stasi secret police's surveillance complicates matters.

Montgomery Cliff (in his last role) plays James Bower, an American physicist visiting West Germany who's recruited by a shady CIA agent, named Adam, to help them with the defection of a Russian scientist. But an East German secret agent, named Peter Heinzeman, learns of Bower's meeting with Adam and threatens Bower to mind his own business, while Bower learns of a back story to all this involving stolen microfilm that each side wants.—Anonymous

Art expert and Physicist James Bower (Montgomery Clift) is approached by CIA agent Bill Adams (Roddy McDowell) and asked to go to East Germany to meet with a Russian Physicist named Grushenko who is willing to provide the West with the complete details of the latest Soviet missile tests on microfilm. The CIA believes this may determine which country gets to the moon first. Bower is on vacation and wants no part of this. Adams tells him that Grushenko demands to give the information to him only. If Bower refuses, he'll have all his research funding cut off. Bower reluctantly agrees to go to East Germany to meet with Grushenko to get the microfilm. On his arrival in Leipzig he is introduced to Public Relations Counselor Peter Heinzmann (Hardy Kruger) who has a great deal of knowledge of Bowers' purpose. Heinzmann makes it clear that he knows Bower is there to meet with Grushenko. He tells Bower that he wants to know where Grushenko is but Bower denies all knowledge of his whereabouts. During a visit to his contact, Dr. Saltzer, tells him that he should keep in touch with one of the nurses only since he had been arrested that day. Bower returns to his hotel and is told he has been moved to a room 234. In this new room Bower suffers an attempt to brainwash him which fails. Russian spy-master Orlovsky arrives and informs Heinzmann that Bowers has been subjected to "the room" in order to break him and learn of Grushenko's location. Heinzmann is outraged and insists that due to his affinity with Bower he should be allowed to work with him to find the microfilm. Learning that his visa has been canceled Bower realizes his life is in danger. With the aid of friends he attempts to escape back to the West and succeeds with Heinzmann's help.—Anonymous

American Physics Professor Jim Bower is coerced by less than ethical means by CIA Agent Phil Adams, who he thought was a friend, for an unofficial job in East Germany: to retrieve some microfilm containing top secret information from Soviet physicist Dr. Grushenko about the Russian space tests, and smuggle the microfilm back to the west. Grushenko will only provide the information to Bower, a colleague who translated many of his works from Russian into English. Bower, an art history buff, was traveling to Leipzig and Dresden anyway to view an art restoration project underway, making his cover even more legitimate. Adams has no intention of helping Grushenko defect if that is his want as he is more useful to western governments in his current scientific capacity in the Soviet Union providing secret information to the west. As it is an unofficial job, Bower is provided no protection directly from the CIA. Upon his arrival in Leipzig, Bower is made well aware that the Soviet state security service suspects/knows of his mission with regard to Grushenko. Peter Heinzmann, a young scientist in his own right, was recruited by state security to lead the case, Heinzmann believing because his scientific background would help in understanding Bower's every action. Heinzmann not being a "policeman" in the trained sense often leads to differences between him and his handler, Orlovsky, whose tactics are more heavy handed. While in Leipzig, Bower begins an open association with Frieda Hoffmann, a colleague of one of his Leipzig contacts. Their association may be purely personally romantic, purely professional or a bit of both, they needing to be flexible with this story for their own protection against the watchful eyes of state security. What Bower and Heinzmann learn about the case may bring them closer together as individuals, and potentially at odds with the people who brought them into their respective job.—Huggo