It’s Berlin, 1938. The Nazi machine is in full swing, and life has become increasingly dangerous. Hitler is in power, about to invade Poland and start World War II. Jews are being stripped of their rights and deported to camps. Meanwhile, pastry chef Robert Oeck is partying his face off after hours at his hotel, the Adlon. The Adlon is home to the wealthy, the debauched, foreign journalists, Nazis, and anyone ready to party like it’s ancient Rome.

Robert falls in love and marries Frieda Stein, a beautiful and fierce young Jewish woman. As life becomes increasingly difficult for Jews in Berlin, Frieda and her father, Emil, must reconcile and navigate their new reality as the ‘normalcy’ of life ticks on. Offered the chance to immigrate to England with her childhood love, Egon, Frieda chooses to stay in Berlin with Emil, her stepmother Marta, and Robert.

Robert’s brother, Herbert, trying to avoid working for a living, joins the SS and becomes a tank commander. His boss is SS Gruppenführer Otto von Thiel, an aristocrat, career soldier, and closeted homosexual who becomes Herbert’s unlikely mentor and soon-to-be father-in-law as Herbert falls in love with Thiel’s daughter, Ingrid.

Unbeknownst to Herbert, Thiel is working in the resistance with an agenda to undermine the Nazi machine at all costs. During the invasion and occupation of Poland, Thiel is caught in a homosexual encounter by another SS officer. In an instant, Thiel makes an unfortunate choice, leaving himself and his allies exposed and in grave danger. Herbert becomes Thiel’s right hand, and thus, Frieda and Emil’s very unlikely guardian angel.

Both brothers now face life-or-death choices as Emil and Frieda flee, desperately trying to survive. Herbert must accept the consequences of his Nazi participation as he saves lives and continues resisting the fascist machine from within.

Nazis, Jews, sex, drugs, murder, and sacrifice—this story is about the normalization of complacency and the banality of evil in modern and ‘civilized’ society. There is no time like the present to learn from the past.