In Berlin at the end of World War II, Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård) is conducting Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven) when yet another Allied air raid stops the performance. A minister in the Government of Nazi Germany comes to Furtwängler's dressing room to advise him that he should go abroad, and escape the war. The film then jumps to some time after the Allied victory. U.S. Army General Wallace (R. Lee Ermey) tasks Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) with "getting" Furtwängler at his denazification hearing: "Find Wilhelm Furtwängler guilty. He represents everything that was rotten in Germany".