An American rock-n-roll performer becomes a phenomenon in the Soviet Union at the peak of the Cold War, but as the tensions between the US and the USSR ease, his past compromises come back to haunt him.

At the height of the Cold War, Dean Reed, an aspiring rock-n-roll performer from Colorado, becomes an unlikely superstar behind the Iron Curtain. Years later, as the standoff between the United States and the USSR draws to a close, the compromises Dean made in the past catch up with him. No longer useful to the Soviets, Reed finds his life collapsing. Grappling with his identity, he reflects on his life choices and yearns to return to the United States. However, two weeks after a 60 Minutes profile of Dean airs on CBS, his body is discovered in a lake near his house in East Berlin. Based on the life of Dean Reed, the most famous American that America never knew.