Karl has lodgers, Fritz and Berta Graubach (Luis van Rooten and Blandine Ebinger), who are outspoken supporters of the Nazi cause.

Colonel Dmitri Brikett (Theodore Bikel) is attracted to her and saves her life, though he expects a sexual reward.

However, Erika manages to flee to the American-controlled sector of the city with the assistance of Lori (Dolores Michaels), a nightclub piano player.

However, she finds a very changed, embittered man – a crippled war veteran, who is living in a makeshift shelter with another woman, and who is not happy to see her with an American.

Hugo asks Erika for the engagement ring back so he can buy an artificial arm to replace the one he lost in the war.

A.H. Weiler, writing for The New York Times, described the film as "a curiously episodic adventure whose parts are far more interesting than the whole drama.

While the film opens in Cologne, the novel begins in Dresden, and an early scene depicts the fire-bombing of the city by British and American planes in February 1945.

He takes her back to New York, but they become bored with their comfortable existence, and he accepts an important diplomatic position in Berlin.

When he and Erika return, she has a final encounter with Irmfried von Diesborn, the aristocratic German officer she was engaged to during the war.