Synopsis

An emotional insight into the fate of the more than twenty million forced laborers in Hitler’s Third Reich—an impossible love for a German woman and the endurance of the human spirit to find a way to freedom.

Bochum, Germany, April 1943: While her husband has been at war for three years, twenty-five-year-old Marie Heinrich ekes out a living on a small farm. Her goats, whose milk and cheese help her survive, are her pride and joy. Until the SS confiscates the animals and Marie is forced to take a job at the nearby Schwarzenberg coal mine.

Lyon, France, April 1943: Adrien Rocheau’s shoulder wound from the war has barely healed, when the SS arrests and forces him on a train to Germany. In Bochum, he is assigned to the Schwarzenberg mine. Since he speaks fluent German—his mother is from Alsace—he occasionally escapes the claustrophobic pit as a translator. With Adrien’s support, Marie, who registers the newly arrived forced laborers, finds a way to communicate with the strangers.

Grateful for his help, she slips the Frenchman a little bread and a spare shirt. But socializing with foreign workers is strictly forbidden and punishable by law. While Adrien and his comrades slave away up to fourteen hours a day and quickly grow weaker, Marie searches for a way to help the men. If only it weren’t for her spying neighbor and her controlling boss…