The French Riviera, 1956. Bernie Gunther is on the run. If there's one thing he's learned, it is never to refuse a job from a secret policeman. But this is exactly what he's just done, and now he has the East German Stasi on his tail. Fleeing across Europe, he remembers the last time he worked with his pursuer - it was in 1939, to solve a murder at the Berghof, Hitler's summer hideaway in the Bavarian Alps.
Hitler is long dead, the Berghof now a ruined shell, and the bizarre time Bernie spent there should be no more than a distant memory. But as Bernie pushes on to Berlin and safety, he will find that no matter how far he thinks he has put Nazi Germany behind him, there will always be unfinished business. The Berghof is not done with him yet.