Thomas Brasch was born as a German-Jewish emigrant in England, moving to the GDR with his family in the 1950s. As he grows into a prolific writer and poetic rebel, he struggles with the reality of censorship in communist East Germany.

After surviving a perilous journey, an undocumented African immigrant realises the difficulties of living in Germany. Giving into temptation, his life starts to spiral out of control when a gangster sucks him into Berlin's underworld.