In 1973, Lena is an adventurous Lufthansa flight attendant and is in relationship with Daniel, a West German journalist and activist living in Chile. Upon arrival in Santiago, she reunites with him and they spend their days in the capital peacefully.
One day, the two become entangled in a Chilean military coup at a time when supporters of deposed President Salvador Allende are getting rounded up by the military under General Augusto Pinochet. When Daniel is abducted by Pinochet’s secret police DINA, Lena tries to find and save him.[6] The pursuit leads her to “Colonia Dignidad”, an isolated secret organization living in a sealed-off rural farmland and enclave near the Andes mountains. The organization presents itself as a charitable mission run by Paul Schäfer, a former Wehrmacht colonel and army medic who evaded capture and trial following World War II by disguising himself as a Lutheran pastor and lay minister, later fleeing to Chile to build the organization.
Lena joins the organization to rescue Daniel, only to learn it is a cult that combines Baptist-style tenets, punitive agrarian lifestyles, Nazism, and aggressive anti-Communism, of which no one has ever escaped from. She later finds Daniel, who acts disabled to be overlooked. When they reunite, the couple also discover the organization is also an illegal operations center for DINA, who also use it as a political prison, trafficking ring, and torture venue for dissidents of Pinochet.
With the help of a pregnant nurse named Ursel, Lena and Daniel attempt to escape from Colonia Dignidad. During the escape, they are discovered and Ursel is killed but Lena and Daniel escape to the West German embassy. Staff from the embassy betray them but they exit the country by air, with incriminating photographic evidence against Colonia Dignidad.[6]