The CIA reactivates agent Sam Boyd (Gene Hackman) to conduct a secret exchange of prisoners in post-wall Berlin. While Boyd escorts his former KGB adversary, Pyotr Grushenko (Mikhail Baryshnikov), to the rendezvous, the unlikely duo is tipped off that they are being set up. When the aging former cold warriors realize they are in over their heads, they enlist the help of beautiful Natasha Grimaud (Géraldine Danon) to help them evade the forces bent on sacrificing them.