It’s 1954 and Bernie Gunther finds himself in prison with a proposition: work for the French or hang for murder. Bernie’s job is simple: to meet and greet POWs returning from Germany. One of these is Edgard de Boudel, a French war criminal and member of the French SS, who has been posing as a German Wehrmacht officer. The French are anxious to catch up with this man and deal with him in their own ruthless way. But Bernie's past as a German POW in Russia is about to catch up with him – in a way he could never have foreseen.