Phoenix

After the World War II, the Jewish Lene Winter brings her friend Nelly Lenz back to a hospital in Germany. Nelly is a former singer that has survived Auschwitz concentration camp, but her face has been disfigured by a shot. Now, Lene uses the fortune Nelly has inherited from her deceased Jewish family and the German plastic surgeon reconstructs her face different from her original. Lene tries to convince Nelly to move to a seaside town in Germany or to Palestine, but she prefers to stay in Berlin to look for her believed husband Johnny Lenz instead. She seeks him out and finds him at the Phoenix cabaret, where he works. She meets him but he does not recognize Nelly. However, he notes a disturbing resemblance with Nelly. She says that her name is Esther and Johnny proposes a scheme, training her to impersonate Nelly and get her inheritance. Nelly tells Lene that Johnny loves Nelly, and she replies that her husband betrayed her to the Germans when he was arrested. Nelly does not believe, but when Lene commits suicide, she leaves a letter to Nelly with evidence of what Johnny had made to her. But Nelly proceeds with Johnny's plan.