The heroes of the film are angels, unemployed guardian angels who have been hanging around Berlin ever since the end of World War II, having lost most of the powers they once owned: to whisper advice into people's ears. Now they're mainly invisible observers.

Two of them, Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) meet an American film crew coming into town to shoot a wartime movie on location - the story is centered around an American detective who comes to Berlin in 1945 just before the end of the war. Damiel is strangely attracted by the movie star (Peter Falk), playing the detective. And then he falls in love with a girl, trapeze artist Marion (Solveig Dommartin)! He even considers giving up his eternity for her and becoming human himself. It is the American actor who persuades him 'to pass over'.

It changes his life drastically. He meets Marion, but that is a whole new story. And also he meets the movie star 'man to man' and it becomes obvious why he received such competent advice from the actor: he too is 'a former angel'. Like most of mankind probably.

The moral of our story everybody has his own angel inside himself. We only live once so every moment and every experience count as if they were our last.