On May 10, 1940, at 03:00 a.m., the Western Front begins to move. The German Wehrmacht invades Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg to roll up the Maginot Line. On his round of checks, the Swiss railroad guard Tschumi meets the dripping wet German refugee Werner Kramer who has swum across the Rhine. Kramer hopes that the "Heftis", old and wealthy friends of Zurich, will help him. But the news of the German invasion has a shock effect on the Swiss, changing their situation and mood. A truck driver takes Kramer with him for a while and even gives him lunch, but then suddenly leaves him sitting there. In Zurich, the refugee learns that the Heftis have set off for Central Switzerland. At the station, chance brings him together with the tailor Anna Marti, whom he has known since childhood. Anna gives him shelter in the studio and takes him home in the evening. But that doesn't suit her partner, the widowed brother-in-law Albert Widmer, at all. He even thinks about denouncing Kramer. But Kramer realizes for himself that he won't make any progress. He turns himself into the police. After a long night at the police station, he is left with the anxious question of what his prospects are for an asylum application.