The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.

Cast

Ralph FiennesMichael Berg

Kate WinsletHanna Schmitz

David KrossYoung Michael Berg

Lena OlinRose Mather

Bruno GanzProfessor Rohl