Set in the East Germany of 1982, Winter in Berlin tells the story of a mysterious Scottish historian who has come to East Berlin to make a study of the historiographical treatment of Bismarck by East German scholars. But perhaps this is not his only reason. It is a time of serious unrest in Poland, barely 50 miles to the east, where the workers organised into the Solidarity union are challenging the Stalinist government. A secret socialist sympathiser, politically opposed to what he sees as the pseudo-socialism of the Stalinist GDR regime, the historian struggles to distribute socialist leaflets, smuggled from Britain, among the workers of East Berlin. Meanwhile he becomes embroiled in a passionate and complicated love affair with a young Bulgarian student. Closely monitored in all of his activities - legal and illegal - by both the East German authorities and the British Cultural Mission, it is only a matter of time before he is captured.