The American art critic Carol Hoffman (Joan Bennett) visits Nazi Germany in 1938 with her German-American husband Eric (Francis Lederer) and his son. While she is shocked by the leadership, her husband turns out to be a fervent admirer of Hitler (also because of an affair with his childhood sweetheart). For a long time, Hollywood refrained from explicit criticism of Nazi Germany, but not Irving Pichel. His masterpiece was one of the first films to warn of the dangers of National Socialism, using haunting images. Germany is a police state, in which dissidents are sent to concentration camps and all criticism is perilous.