A prosperous family in Berlin cannot see what the future holds when they adopt a poor orphaned girl, Lore, instantly an older sister to their biological daughter, Caroline. As the story opens, it is 1939, and Caroline and Lore are young women, living amid the madness engulfing Europe. As their parents disappear into this madness, the two young women flee to Switzerland. What happens next will change both of their lives forever, as a single act of duplicity reverberates through three generations even as they grasp new hope and happiness in America.