Captain Erhardt Von Rheindars, a German fighter pilot who is disgraced for abandoning his Fw 190 after his wingman, Lt. Erich Hartmann, is shot down by three enemy Spitfires during a night recon mission, is assigned to escort a captured American B-17 bomber. The bomber is to carry his childhood sweetheart, her scientist father and a fearsome secret cargo - a Nazi atom bomb and for the mission is given a prototype Ta 152, after his complaints about the high altitude performance of his Fw 190.