The German peace activist Petra Kelly was shot while sleeping in 1992 by her lover, former general Gert Bastian, who then followed her to his death. What can have passed through Petra Kelly's mind in the time between the entry of the bullet into her brain and the moment when it fixed there and caused her death? As the bullet enters her head, Petra awakes in the glass transit lounge of an airport. There she grapples, along with Gert and other figures from her life, with the meaning of the shooting and reflects on her love affair with her partner, fellow activist and executioner. In this unreal world the couple seek to understand what has happened to them and to try to find a new future together. They search tirelessly for the 'Happiness of the Warm Gun' of the title.