Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she betrays him with a colleague, the relationship takes a darker turn - just as the GDT begins to crumble, ushering in a new era whose great gains also involve profound loss.