At the start of the Cold War in 1949, the writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) - an actress, writer, and rally driver with nerves of steel - embark on a road trip across a ruined and newly divided Germany. Traveling in a black Buick cruiser from the Allied-occupied city of Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar, the celebrated author must contend with the changes to his fractured homeland after 16 years of exile - and confront the deep tensions within his own family.