 An intimate ballad following the lives of a mother and daughter who go through topsy-turvy historical times. The plot is divided into four seasons set between 1939 and 1961. A Czech woman named Helga works at a German hospital. Out of her love for a Baltic nobleman named Arno, a volunteer in the Finnish War, her daughter Dorli is born. But Arno commits suicide and after the war is over mother and daughter must bear the victors  revenge alone - Helga is humiliated and expelled from her native region. Mother and daughter survive thanks only to the aid of the Jewish head doctor of the hospital. Years later Arno s body is exhumed and Dorli, who has always felt close to him, wants to trace her father s roots. She and a Greek boy try to escape but Communist repression spoils their plans. In order to protect her daughter, Helga puts herself at the mercy of a secret police torturer.