The German prisoner of war, Georg Gärtner, flees from a POW camp in New Mexico, in 1946. He hides in California, takes on the name of Dennis Whiles and works as tennis pro and ski instructor and marries an american. He is one of the FBI's most wanted person for 40 years. In 1985 the german producer Gerd Hecker discovers Gärtner's file in an archive in Berlin and finds him in Boulder before Gärtner turns himself in to the authorities.