Acclaimed filmmaker Volker Schlondorff meditates on the evils of war in this drama about a German journalist, Georg (Bruno Ganz), who trades the slow death of his marriage for the incessant assault of chaotic Beirut. He's on assignment for his paper with his shutterbug confidant, Hoffman (Jerzy Skolimowski), and is immediately lost amid the carnage. When he meets a stunning local (Hanna Schygulla), the personal crashes with the political.