It's 1918 Munich, and Max Rothman (JOHN CUSACK) is a one-armed war veteran and former artist turned modern art dealer. Married to Nina (MOLLY PARKER) but having a mistress, Liselore Von Peltz (LEELEE SOBIESKI), Max sells his goods from an old locomotive factory and has developed a rather lucrative business for himself.
One day he meets Adolf Hitler (NOAH TAYLOR), a discontented corporal who similarly served in Germany's unsuccessful WWI campaign and is unhappy about how things turned out for his country and himself. He's also an artist and Max sees potential in him, but finds his anti-Semitic rambling a bit disturbing, although he views him as harmless.
Captain Mayr (ULRICH THOMSEN), on the other hand, likes what he hears in Hitler's impassioned views about race and other issues, and wants him to take a course in propaganda. The troubled artist would rather paint, but Mayr suggest that the army could pay for his expenses and thus Hitler agrees.
As he and Max form an unlikely and tenuous friendship and working relationship, Hitler soon begins to realize the power of the combination of art and politics. Displaying early signs of what he'll eventually become, his involvement with Max could swing his life one way or another with the future of his nation and the world hanging in the balance.