American expatriate Tom (Dennis Hopper) treats Hamburg, Germany, like it's the Wild West and makes a living by hawking art forgeries, but decides to take part in a murder plot for extra cash. All Tom has to do to earn his share is find a potential assassin who won't do any talking, and he has the perfect man: Jonathan (Bruno Ganz), a dying cancer patient desperate to leave his family an inheritance.
Jonathan begrudgingly accepts, but he's no gunman, and the scheme quickly goes sour.
