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.