The film is set against the backdrop of the 1973 Chilean military coup and the Colonia Dignidad, a notorious cult in the South of Chile, led by German lay preacher Paul Schäfer.

One day, the two become entangled in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état by General Augusto Pinochet, in which supporters of deposed President Salvador Allende are getting rounded up by the military.

[5] The pursuit leads her to "Colonia Dignidad", an isolated secret organisation living in a sealed-off rural farmland and enclave near the Andes mountains.

Lena joins the organisation to rescue Daniel, only to learn it is a cult that combines Baptist-style tenets, punitive agrarian lifestyles, Nazism, and aggressive anti-Communism, from which no one has ever escaped.

Lena skinny dips in a nearby pond in order to be brought over to the men's section for the same punishments so that she can find Daniel.

When they reunite, the couple discover the organisation is also an illegal operations centre for DINA, who also use it as a political prison, trafficking ring, and torture venue for dissidents of Pinochet.

They discover that the West German ambassador and the embassy staff are cooperating with Schäfer, but they manage to make their escape at the airport and exit the country by air, with incriminating photographic evidence against Colonia Dignidad.

[5] On 29 September 2014, it was announced that Emma Watson and Daniel Brühl would star as a couple in the upcoming film which is based on a real historical background, directed by Florian Gallenberger who co-wrote the script with Torsten Wenzel.