The Violets of March

Berlin, 1936. Just before the Olympic Games. A gray city, with depressing streets and expressionless faces, surrendered to the rain and Hitler's grandiose plans. Jazz, cabarets, cheerfulness, and relaxation belong to the past. Bernie Gunther, a former police officer and now a private detective, is hired by millionaire Hermann Six to find a stolen diamond necklace. The jewel was in the safe of Six's daughter, who, along with her husband, was found charred. As Bernie begins his investigation, he realizes that the case is much more complicated than it seems...

The Pale Criminal

Berlin, 1938. Germany, subjugated by Hitler's megalomania, seems ready to conquer the world. Bernie Gunther collaborates with the police to solve a series of gruesome murders of girls. At the same time, he takes on an important blackmail case involving the homosexual son of the wealthy publisher Lange. With Hitler in power, Reinhard Lange's homosexuality would surely lead him to a concentration camp...

German Requiem

Berlin, 1947. Hitler's empire has collapsed. Germany now resembles a fallen diva, counting the losses of war amidst the ruins of a glorious past: half-destroyed buildings, ruined streets, people-ghosts of their former selves with ration cards in hand. Bernie Gunther discovers that his wife is cheating on him with an American officer. At the same time, he takes on the task of helping his old colleague Emil Becker, who is imprisoned in Vienna, accused of murdering an American captain; Bernie is determined to leave the city that hurts him, with the prospect of a hefty reward...

Against the backdrop of the German capital during the tumultuous era of World War II, three different dark cases compose the "Berlin Trilogy," one of the masterpieces of noir literature.