Legendary South Tyrolean mountain climber, director and screen idol Luis Trenker offers Eva Braun's diaries to Hollywood agent Paul Kohner at the Venice Film Festival in 1948. Film director Leni Riefenstahl sues to have the authenticity of the diaries verified because they claim she was once Hitler's mistress. The story of these two famous opportunists is told in flashbacks, from their brief romance, to their ruthless competitive bouts, to their backing by Hitler and Goebbels, and their artistic successes. Trenker, one of the most popular stars in pre-war Germany, continued to act after the War (well into the eighties), but his popularity waned and he never truly recovered from his relationship with the Nazis.