The first scene in the film reveals the time when the action is taking place: February 1975. The opening scene presents a ferry on which a young man looks into the distance. He is watching from another ferry by a man wearing a black trench coat and filming him. When the young man gets off, he quickly realizes he is followed and steals a car to help him escape.
The next scene shows the young man going to a party and a woman calling her friend, Katharina, and telling her to come to the party as well. From the first party, the mysterious man and with a group of friends goes to another party. At the second party, Katharina meets with the mysterious man, named here Ludwig and they go together to spend the night at Katharina's apartment.
Early the next morning, Katharina's apartment is searched, the police officers looking for Ludwig but he was already gone. Katharina is taken to the police station where she is interrogated for hours and hours trying to prove the two knew each other before the party. Every other person who had some type of contact with Ludwig were investigated, but only Katharina was seen as being a person of interest.
In the evening, Katharina is allowed to go home, even though some of the people at the police station express concern when it came to her safety. These concerns proved to be true since the moment she arrived home, Katharina started to receive strange phone calls and messages at her door. In this context the film introduces for the first time a man named Werner Tötges who worked for a national newspaper. His methods of finding more information are portrayed as being violent, immoral and despicable. Still, because of his efforts, Katharina becomes known by the whole country in just a few short days.
The police interrogates Katharina's aunt as well, linking her with the communists and arguing she is to be blamed since her mother chose to remain on the other side of Germany. Katharina is interrogated one more time and the police chose to investigate her financial situation and her excess of money and their origins. When Katharina returned home, she found a large pile of letters, some including obscene pictures, addressed to her. Katharina read them out loud while her aunt and uncle were watching her and cleaning her apartment from the destruction caused by the police and by the investigators.
That night, Katharina called Ludwig, knowing full well her conversation was begin listened. The film then shows Ludwig, hiding in a dark house in a mysterious place. Meanwhile, Blorna, Katharina's employer returned home to try and help Katharina. Bologna was informed that Katharina decided to give an interview to "The Paper" but no one was able to get a hold of her to ask her about this. Meanwhile, Katharina was at the hospital where her mother was situated, rushing there after hearing about her death. As Katharina returns home, she finds that Ludwig was caught in Professor Straubleder's house,the house of the man with whom Katharina had an affair with.
After Ludwig was caught, Katharina was told by Blorna she will most likely be accused as well and will be sent to prison. Upon hearing this news, Katharina asked Werner Tötges to come to her place to offer him an interview. As soon as he entered her apartment, Werner Tötgesbegan talking down to her, blaming her for everything that had happened to her and then pressuring her into having sex with him. When Katharina gets up, she shoots four times, Werner Tötges, killing him.
The film ends with Katharina in the same prison cell she was put in during her first interrogation, confessing of also killing Werner Tötges' photographer. Katharina sees Ludwig one more time while she is taken from one cell to another and they get the change to embrace themselves before being taken away. The last scene is one through which the funeral of Werner Tötges and his photographer are presented. Katharina is once more, blamed for everything that happened while the press is hailed as a hero in their quest for the truth.
