Kaethe travels from the U.S. to Berlin to search for her missing daughter, the 22-year-old Sophie. The product of the doomed marriage between an American communist and a hard-drinking mother who was a German war bride, Kaethe`s own marriage to a German count fell apart, and now, back in Germany, she is disoriented and disturbed, and in the process of seeking Sophie she finds she must confront some truths about her life.