Jacob "Jake" Geismer (George Clooney), an American war correspondent for ''The New Republic'', returns to Berlin during the Potsdam Conference between the Allies of World War II after Victory in Europe Day (May 1945) but before Victory over Japan Day (August 1945). Jacob witnesses his murdered driver, a Black marketeering American soldier named Tully (Tobey Maguire), being fished from a river eddy, suspiciously adjacent to the Potsdam conference grounds. The corpse is discovered to be in possession of 50,000 German reichsmarks — which are later revealed to have been printed by the U.S occupying forces.