After a boyhood of tragedy and want, life begins to look brighter for Seán O’Brien as he enters manhood. As a talented musician, the doors of the rich are thrown open to him, and his initial success allows him to dare dream of saving his family from grinding poverty. In a convulsion of history, however, his dream is to be challenged as the potato crop in Ireland succumbs to disease and hundreds of thousands face a lingering death by starvation.

It is May 1940 in Holland. As the Baumann family realizes that Hitler’s war has suddenly become their war, sirens begin blaring as a squadron of airplanes flies over Oosterbeek. Antje, Gerrit, and Cornelis Baumann are too young to understand what is happening around them. All they know is that they feel powerless as they watch their father cry.