The story of Marx and Mercedes starts in a sleepy little italian village. Marx, a young German dealing with his suicidal depression, is drawn to the rocky cliffs of Apulia, whilst the Russian beauty Mercedes is drawn to any trouble that will distract her from her boredom. The unlikely pair find a strange fascination in one another, both torn between running from or falling for the other. They begin to spin stories, pushing the boundaries of truth and fiction, rewriting their own pasts according to their dreams. As they lose their grasp on what is real, so too do they lose their grasp on consequences.