Annalise Bergen is seeking shelter among the rubble of a fallen Berlin, after members of the Red Army have held her prisoner for two weeks in her apartment. She is released by a kind Ukrainian officer, who disappears almost as soon as he appears. Annalise cannot get the image of him out of her mind, but finding him means losing the safety net his kindness has created for her. She survives by living on meager rations and by feigning interest in American GI's. Eventually, she finds the soldier again, but her discovery also means a loss to her freedom and safety.