It is January 1954 in West Berlin. Brilliant CIA operative Harvey Torriti (Alfred Molina), code-named Sorcerer, and his young assistant, Jack McAuliffe (Chris O’Donnell), code-named Apprentice, make contact with a man who seeks to defect with his family from East Germany. In exchange, he offers Sorcerer the name of a KGB mole working in MI6. The Sorcerer agrees to the plan and arranges for the defection to take place. Unfortunately, however, the KGB gets wind of the plan and interferes. As a result, it becomes clear to Sorcerer and to CIA counter-intelligence specialist James Jesus Angleton (Michael Keaton), code-named Mother, that it was the MI6 mole who gave away the information. But who that mole is remains unknown.