An aspiring young politician named Willy Brandt wants to become German Chancellor, but the current Chancellor Konrad Adenauer wants to prevent this at all costs and by any means necessary. Adenauer has the secret service and old alliances with a Nazi past on his side and has Brandt's election campaign spied on and torpedoed by informants in the party executive. He pulls out all the tricks to outdo the charismatic Brandt. The Federal Chancellor does not stop at damaging his reputation and defaming him - all in order to maintain his power and defeat the supposed communist "enemy".
