TARGET

In Paris, a woman named Donna Lloyd has been missing for two days. In Dallas, her husband Walter and their college-age son Chris decide to look for her. At the airport, Chris bumps into backpacker Carla. Walter, on the other hand, bumps into Heinz Henke, a man with a gun who has Donna's jewelry. A man in glasses then tries to kill Walter, accidentally shooting Henke before disappearing.

At the hotel in Paris, Walter reveals that Donna has been kidnapped. Chris later saves his life when a car shoots at Walter. After they escape, Walter confesses that he used to work for the CIA.

Meanwhile, to Walter's chagrin, the CIA are watching the pair to make sure that they do not get into trouble. The two leave for Hamburg by train, evading the CIA in the process. At the train station, Walter and Chris see a man approach a similar pair - a young man and his father - yelling "Mendelssohn" to them. The man then grabs a fiddle and begins playing a tune. Walter and Chris leave. On the way out, Chris spots Carla.

The next day, they decide to meet "The Colonel", Walter's old boss. Chris spots the fiddler, and Walter tears off in the car. They attempt to lose their pursuers, but when they cannot, Walter leaves Chris and takes off on foot. Cornered by the fiddler and another agent, Walter jumps off the pier onto a passing ferry. The two agents hum the tune to Walter, and point for him to meet them further up the channel. The assassin who attempted to kill Walter earlier is there. He considers murdering Walter, but ultimately kills the fidler when the latter tries to stop him. Chris later picks Walter up.

At the Colonel's, Walter asks him about Henke. They recall "Operation Clean Sweep", where they killed five of six agents. The tune turns out to be a Mendelssohn concerto. "Mendelssohn" was the codename of Schroeder, the agent who escaped "Clean Sweep".

Walter later leaves for West Berlin, to a Pension. Chris then leaves on a train to Frankfurt, where he will presumably be safe.

The assassin later visits and tortures the Colonel for the Lloyds' location. Though the Colonel does not give them up, his caretaker does, and the assassin kills both of them.

At the train station, Chris spots Carla, who is supposedly headed to Berlin to stay with friends. Chris decides to change his travel plans to Berlin, where the two have sex.

Chris later visits Walter, who sends him out to keep watch at a café near the pension. Their plan is disrupted, however, when Carla appears. Chris spots the assassin and moves to signal Walter, but Carla pulls out a gun and forces him to stay put. The assassin enters the apartment, where Walter shoots him dead. Chris slugs Carla and flees with Walter.

That night, Walter heads alone into East Berlin and is picked up by a courier who takes him to a farm. Schroeder is there and says that his family, a wife and two children, were murdered by the CIA. Walter denies it, having investigated the killings. He thinks that there is another party involved. The group that has been recently trying to kill him may have "walked in both camps."

Meanwhile, following Walter's instructions, Chris heads to the US Embassy in Berlin. Chris is later contacted by Walter, who tells him to head to an abandoned air force base where the CIA used to exchange captured agents with the East. Though he proceeds alone to East Berlin, the embassy's director Barney Taber and agent Clay catch up with him and Walter. While Walter and Taber talk, Chris enters a hangar nearby and finds Donna bound and wrapped in plastic explosives.

Walter and Clay defuse the bomb. Taber then shoots Clay dead. Taber is the double agent who betrayed both Walter and Schroeder and was responsible for the death of the latter's family. Walter gets the jump on him when Schroeder reappears. Schroeder then sends the Lloyds away before blowing himself and Taber up with the explosives.

Walter confronts Schroeder, the surviving agent from 'Operation Clean Sweep', and the truth behind Donna's kidnapping and the events that followed are revealed. The film resolves with the Lloyd family escaping the immediate threat and the conspirators facing consequences.

The ending brings the family’s ordeal full circle, forcing Walter to face the consequences of his past actions while reaffirming the father-son bond forged under fire. The resolution underscores the cost of espionage, both to those who live it and those drawn in by association, while closing the loop on the film’s central mysteries.