Los Angeles, May 1945, World War II is over. A young German-American by the name of Louis Adlon Jr.is conscripted into the army. Newspaper magnate William R. Hearst sends him to devastated Berlin to serve as overseas correspondent. His task is to deliver sensational stories about the whereabouts of Nazi greats and other news from a dying Germany. There is no better place to find information than in the world famous hotel Adlon. Miraculously, it has not been ravaged by war. Louis who spends a pampered life as a companion to stars and starlets in Hollywood grew up in this hotel.
When he arrives in Berlin the hotel has burned down. Russian soldiers have put fire to it in the first few days after the war ended. Louis is deeply shocked. When he recovers his composure, his childhood memories assail him. He settles in the staffs quarters in a part of the building which has withstood the fire and begins to write... An afternoon tea and dance, a love affair, an oyster dinner, family stories, divorce, debts, scandal. Very vivid memories, some of them captured only on photographs, in silent film footage, in stories by an old waiter, a telephone operator, guests -- Richard Tauber, Josephine Baker, Thomas Mann, Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich. He sees his grandfather up close, who has been granted an audience with Wilhelm II, trying to convince the Emperor that Berlin needs a world class hotel. He sees the helplessly stumbling patent leather shoes of his father... to whom he couldnt say good-bye. He recalls the delicate colors of hotel rooms with marble columns, polished brass, mahogany, silk, wide-ranging views, frescoed, vaulted ceilings: suspended elegance, vanished. Shortly after his return to Los Angeles, Louis Adlon Jr. dies of a broken heart at the age of 39. He is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery amongst his friends from the world of film.