Plot

An American woman of Irish and Jewish-German parentage goes undercover in Nazi Germany.

In 1940, Linda Voss is a woman of Irish and Jewish-German parentage who loves the movies, especially films about war and spies. She gets a job at a New York law firm after it's revealed she can speak German fluently. As secretary and translator to Ed Leland, she begins to suspect that her boss is involved in espionage work. The two become lovers, and when America officially joins the Allies in fighting Hitler, Linda volunteers to go undercover behind enemy lines.—L. Hamre

In 1940, Linda Voss (Melanie Griffith), a young woman of Irish/German Hebrew parentage, begins a new job as a secretary with a New York law firm. Because she can speak German fluently, she becomes assistant/translator to Ed Leland (Michael Douglas), a humorless attorney. Linda gradually comes to suspect that Ed hides dark secrets. She is proved right when, after America officially joins forces with the Allies, he emerges as a colonel in the OSS. She accompanies him to confidential meetings in New York and Washington D.C., and before long, they become lovers. When he is suddenly posted away, she is left alone and devastated.

Assigned to work in the War Department, Linda hears nothing of Ed until he reappears as suddenly as he left. Reluctant to resume their affair, he does re-employ her. Ed and his colleagues abruptly need to replace a murdered agent in Berlin at very short notice. Despite knowing little about intelligence work - only what she's seen in movies - Linda volunteers and Ed allows himself to be persuaded by her fluent German and passion to contribute to the war effort. They travel to Switzerland, where Ed hands her over to master spy Konrad Friedrichs, code-named "Sunflower" (John Gielgud). Despite being appalled at her dialect ("the accent of a Berlin butcher's wife!"), he installs Linda in the basement of his Berlin mansion and introduces her to his niece, Margrete Von Eberstein (Joely Richardson), a beautiful socialite also working as an Allied agent.

Linda is planted as a cook in the household of a social-climbing Nazi, but her first dinner is a disaster, and she is sacked on the spot. She is taken on as a nanny to the children of high-ranking Nazi officer Franz-Otto Dietrich (Liam Neeson), who had been a guest at the dinner. Unable to report back to Ed, she is taken to Dietrich's house and effectively drops out of sight. Dietrich brings home confidential documents, so Linda starts searching for them - intending to photograph them. Contrary to orders, she also attempts to locate her cousins, believed to be hiding in Berlin. She tracks down her relatives hiding place but is too late. They have already been captured and the cellar is empty.

A bombing raid causes the Dietrich children to reveal a hidden room, where Linda photographs Dietrich's top-secret papers. Her cover is blown by Margrete's mother, who believes her to be a friend from university. In desperation, she seeks sanctuary with Margrete, only to find to her horror that she is a double agent who has betrayed Linda's cousins and has now also betrayed Linda. She shoots Linda, wounding her, but Linda overpowers Margrete and kills her.

Badly wounded, Linda is found and rescued by Ed, who has come to Berlin in the guise of a high-ranking German officer. Pretending to be mute, as he does not speak the language, Ed takes Linda to the railway station, and they travel to the Swiss border. Linda is barely alive, and his travel papers are out of date. Ed's bluff fails to sway the border guards, forcing him to shoot his way out. Still carrying Linda, he struggles towards the frontier border. The German sniper guarding the border wounds him twice, but he manages to get himself and Linda onto Swiss soil before collapsing. The sniper is shot by his Swiss counterpart.

The film closes as it began, with a television interview of an elderly Linda. It is revealed that while Linda and Ed recovered from their injuries in a Swiss hospital, the microfilm of the secret German documents has been retrieved from a hiding place inside Linda's glove - a trick she learned from one of her favorite war movies. She waves to Ed, now her husband, and their two sons. Ed joins her on camera as the film ends.