Chase is an American ex-pat who followed Maria to Munich Germany. She was neither consulted nor happy about his reintroduction into her life. Alone and away from all that's familiar, Chase struggles with rejection, but clings to a distorted and childish perception of an ideal love. Chase is proud of his abstention from carnal urges, thinking it makes him a step above. He shows disdain for his single colleagues, who explore European destinations every weekend, yet he can't help but be enticed by their crude recounting of conquests and wishes he could similarly partake without guilt or consequence.

A chance meeting on the subway with Hans, a burn-victim, forces Chase to reconsider all his motivations, the source of his desire, and trace the roots of his emptiness all the way back to his childhood. Walking alone through the city, Chase stands in the middle of the Bridge Across the Isar: green fields are on one side: gray buildings under construction on the other: a nude beach lies downstream and a prominent church towers dominates the skyline upstream. It's there on the bridge that Chase experiences a fleeting moment of clarity and the confidence to step across to the other side.