In Fort Worth, Texas, retired Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Sam Boyd breaks into a cosmetics manufacturing facility and photographs confidential documents. Later, while waiting to deliver the data to his client, he learns that his approach was outdated. A younger man recovered the same information by hacking into the facility’s computer system. That night, Sam receives a call instructing him to come to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. There, CIA director Elliot Jaffe tasks him with swapping Pyiotr Grushenko, a Russian mole in American custody, for Ernest Sobel, an American spy who was captured by the KGB decades ago. When Sam remarks that Grushenko is no one of significance, Jaffe informs him that the Russians are also expecting $2 million. Sam finds the deal strange, but looks forward to working again, and accepts the assignment. En route to collect Grushenko in Fargo, North Dakota, Sam listens to a news report about a missing Texas A&M University economics professor. Arriving at the penitentiary, he meets a disgruntled Pyiotr Grushenko, who dismisses the swap as a cover for some other agenda. The two men fly to Berlin, Germany, and head to a deserted subway station, where CIA agent Mike Flinn instructs Sam to accompany Grushenko on an empty train car into East Berlin. Flinn reminds Sam to let the Russian continue, alone and with the suitcase of cash, to the exchange point. At an abandoned rail line in East Berlin, Sam observes the swap through binoculars. When he notices that the person walking toward Grushenko does not appear to be Ernest Sobel, he cries out to abort the mission. Gunshots ring out as Sam and Grushenko take the subway car back into West Berlin. Alerted to the situation, Mike Flinn tries to intercept the two, but to no avail. Sam and Grushenko take cover inside a German cabaret. There, Sam calls Elliot Jaffe and explains that the swap was a deception. Another man, possibly the missing economics professor, was impersonating Ernest Sobel. Jaffe tells Sam to go to a safe house in West Berlin and await further instructions. After the call, Jaffe reports the botched job to his superior, Colonel Grissom. Meanwhile, Sam and Grushenko steal an exhaust-spewing East German car and proceed to the safe house. Suspicious of the CIA’s instructions, Grushenko holds Sam at gunpoint and insists they separate. Sam continues to the safe house, but just before he rings the doorbell, Grushenko steps out of the shadows and beckons him across the street. The Russian fires his weapon at the doorbell, and the building explodes. Realizing they have been set up, they seek the assistance of passport forger Horst von Hoven. Jaffe and his aides in Washington, D.C., deduce the fugitives’ whereabouts, and send Mike Flinn to Horst’s apartment to capture them. However, Sam and Grushenko elude the agent. That night, Sam asks Faisal, an old friend and a Saudi Arabian arms dealer, for lodgings. In the morning, Grushenko notices that the residence is under surveillance. He and Sam jump from a window and escape into the forest. There, Grushenko reveals that Ernest Sobel, after being captured in 1969, began working for the Russians, who sent him back to the U.S. to serve as a “handler” for Grushenko and other Russian spies. Sam realizes that Sobel and the missing economics professor are, in fact, the same man. The professorship was a cover, and the spy swap was his chance to return to his original identity. When Grushenko mentions that Sobel also had a handler, a man named “Donald,” Sam muses that someone within the CIA had to have known that Sobel was a double agent. Meanwhile, Jaffe and his aides arrive in Berlin, where they are confronted by Colonel Grigori Golitsin, head of the KGB. Golitsin predicts that Sam and Grushenko are en route to Paris, France. Jaffe sends a security team to the train station in Paris, but Sam and Grushenko evade detection. Under cover of darkness, they meet Natasha Grimaud, an acquaintance of Grushenko’s, and entrust her with the $2 million. In the morning, Natasha offers to put the money into a Swiss bank account, but points out that Grushenko must go to Zurich to withdraw the funds in person. When Sam asks for confirmation about the financial exchange, Natasha agrees to meet him at a Parisian cafe that night. There, she remarks that spies like Sam and Grushenko are no longer relevant in the changing political landscape. On returning to her apartment, Natasha is apprehended by Golitsin and Jaffe, who calls Sam to reveal that Natasha is Grushenko’s daughter. The CIA director insists that Sam bring in Grushenko, along with the $2 million, in exchange for Natasha. Sam coordinates a meeting with Grushenko at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and informs Jaffe to expect them at noon. Disguised as the elevator operator, Sam accompanies the unsuspecting Grushenko to the top of the Parisian landmark. However, when the doors open, he pulls Grushenko back into the car, exchanging gunfire with Jaffe’s agents. Although Grushenko is shot, Sam determines that the wound is not life threatening, and suggests they hide in the restaurant on the Tower’s second level. Grushenko dials a telephone number he memorized years ago, and leaves a message for “Donald,” notifying him that Sobel has returned to the CIA. In Washington, D.C., an answering machine plays the message to Colonel Grissom’s empty office. Sam and Grushenko order vodka and make a toast to their future.