Viena, 1957. A sobrevivente de um campo de concentração, Lucia Atherton (Charlotte Rampling), encontra trabalhando como porteiro de hotel Maximilian Theo Aldorfer (Dirk Bogarde), um oficial nazista que foi seu torturador. O encontro faz retornar a relação sadomasoquista que tiveram.
A forty year old woman, who has been in an asylum, goes to live with her brother's family. She proves incapable of adapting herself to family life, takes refuge in the country alone with her memories, and is later returned to the asylum.
France and Germany are at war. Adolf Hitler challenges the Allies to seal the fate of the war by playing a football match.