During the Cold War, the British Intelligence receives a blurred photograph from East Germany taken from Hamburg and Director LeClerc (Sir Ralph Richardson) believes they are missiles. Their agent, Taylor King (Timothy West), who receives a film which might clarify the detail from a pilot in Finland, is found dead on the road, and the Police believe he was accidentally killed in a hit-and-run. LeClerc meets the Polish defector Fred Leiser (Christopher Jones), who jumped overboard from a ship expecting to have asylum and stay with his British girlfriend, who is pregnant, and decides to recruit him to cross the border and spy on the East German facility to check on the missiles. In return, he would have salary, insurance, and political asylum. Leiser is trained by the Agent and family man John Avery (Sir Anthony Hopkins), and soon he finds his girlfriend has had ended the pregnancy. When Leiser crosses the border, he meets up with Anna (Pia Degermark), a local, and they stay together in the beginning of a dangerous journey where he is just a pawn in a war game.