Lionel Kupfer, a film star of the early thirties who is universally adored, has travelled to the Hotel Waldhaus in Sils Maria to prepare for his next role. But Kupfer finds himself confronted with the fact that as a Jew he is not wanted in Germany. The contract for his next film is cancelled. The bad news comes to him from Eduard, his lover, whose dangerous closeness to the new rulers becomes more and more obvious. Lionel Kupfer is forced to emigrate, but not only has he to leave Eduard, but also a young Swiss postal official named Walter, who has smuggled himself into the hotel in the hope of meeting the film star he adores in the flesh. Not only do we follow Lionel into exile to New York, where as an actor he can't really gain a foothold, but also the shady art dealer Eduard and the young postal clerk from Sils.
Over a period of fifty years, we meet people of different origins whose paths cross, who sometimes come very close for a few days, only to be torn apart again. But although they lose sight of each other, they do not forget each other.
