In 1976 a famous American writer Nathan Zuckerman is challenged by Czech immigrant Sisovsky who implores him to retrieve valuable manuscripts from communist Czechoslovakia. The writer accepts this dangerous mission, where his every step is observed by secret police. Once in Prague, he meets Sisovsky‘s flamboyant and wild ex-wife Olga who is in possession of the manuscripts. The evolving relationship between the hot-headed Olga and Nathan is a confrontation between two worlds – the repressed East and free West. But, Olga won‘t give up the manuscripts to Nathan so easily…

A lonely artist brings a young, drifter woman back to his tiny apartment to live with him. Between his obsessive tendencies and her non-stop drinking, something strange happens. They start to care for each other.