Hoffman plays Gunter Bachmann, an intelligence operative working surreptitiously with a view to unmasking Islamic terrorists plotting further destruction. The opportunity arises with the arrival of Issa Karpov, played by Grigoriy Dobrygin, a Chechen who is suspected as a jihadist but says he has been tortured by the Russians, seeks asylum and needs to be put in touch with a banker to claim money left in an account by his late father, who wanted him to have it. Meanwhile, he moves into the apartment of a Turkish woman and her son, who connect him with a young lawyer, Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams), from a human rights organization, and she decides to help him gain refuge.

If this already seems complicated, it becomes much more so. Bachmann has an associate in his undercover work—Irna Frey, played by Nina Hoss in a performance in tune with Bachmann’s very independent stance in operating without necessarily taking orders from German security higher-ups. He also has dealings and trade-offs with a CIA agent, Martha Sullivan, played smartly by Robin Wright, as well as having to take into regard her superiors in their collaboration with German intelligence.

Willem Dafoe plays the banker who controls the account in question and is pressed into cooperating with Bachmann. There is also Homayoun Ershadi as Dr. Faisal Abdullah, a Muslim academic known for raising funds for charities. You will encounter various other characters added to the mosaic of what is unfolding as maneuvers escalate and Bachmann gets more and more in deep and the question of whom can one trust lingers.

One must pay close attention, but that will pay off as the mystery dramatically unravels in a melodramatic finish.