William’s great surprise, his cousin Clovis, whom he did not see again since around thirty years, arrives from New York to visit him. Reunion between both men creates one thousand memories: always so collusive, they become fast inseparable, living again, the space of moment, their young years… Only Elizabeth, wife of William, who has just lost her father, does not share their cheerfulness.

A young, idealist American gets a job as a train conductor for the Zentropa railway network in postwar, US-occupied Frankfurt. As various people try to take advantage of him, he soon finds his position politically sensitive, and gets caught up in a whirlpool of conspiracies and Nazi sympathisers.