Alice in den Städten is the story of Philip Phil Winter (Rüdiger Vogler) a German author contracted to write a book about America. We catch up with Phil in California after driving cross-country with a Polaroid camera for inspiration. He returns to his Publisher (Ernest Boehm) in New York and decides to go back to Germany to finish his book. While attempting to book a flight to Munich he discovers that there is an airline strike in Germany and that all flights in and out of the country are, for the time being, cancelled. He then encounters a young German woman Lisa (Lisa Kreuzer) with a young girl, Alice, (Yella Rottländer) who are in a similar predicament. They team up and decide to wait a day for the next flight to neighboring Austria and then driving into Germany from there. While in New York Phil goes to see his friend Angela (Edda Köchl), he attempts to sleep with her but she refuses to have anything to do with him. Phil goes to the hotel where Lisa and Alice are staying for the night and he sleeps there. The next morning Phil wakes up to a note left by Lisa saying that she will meet them in Austria due to the fact that her boyfriend is hysterical and she has to help him. Phil and Alice then fly to Austria and wait for Alice's mother. Phil realizes that her mother is not coming and they set out looking for Alice's grandmother, only Alice does not know her name or where she lives. After aimlessly searching for several days Phil decides to go to the police and let them deal with the abandoned girl. He leaves the police station and goes to a chuck Berry concert. After the concert Alice hops back into Phil's car remembering her grandmothers name and the city she lives in. They then set out and find the house only to discover that her grandmother does not reside there any longer. The police then catch up with Phil and ask why he and Alice disappeared. Phil learns that Alice had simply left out of the police station and was not released. The officer tells Phil that they had found Alice's mother and that he may accompany them to the train station to see Alice off. Phil does not have money for a train ticket so as he is saying goodbye to Alice at the station she gives him a hundred dollar bill so that he can go with her on the train. He accepts Alice's offer and the film ends with the two of them riding a train back to Munich.