Germany 1944: despite the horrors of the war, Eva Rombach (Christine Neubauer) and her husband Karlheinz (Timothy Peach) are able to enjoy the time he spends with the family while on leave from the front. Eva’s father, teacher Julius Kantor (Peter Sodann), believes fervently that the German forces will be victorious in the end - in contrast to the views of his wife Magdalene (Eva-Maria Hagen). When  Karlheinz has to go back to the front he asks his old friend Sebastian (Martin Feifel), who has been exempted from active duty after being injured in the fighting, to take care of his wife and little boy. Just before the war ends Karlheinz is taken prisoner of war by the Russians. The letters he writes to Eva never arrive. When trains bringing returnees begin to reach Germany, Eva hopes each time that her husband will be on one of them - but in vain. She has no way of knowing that he is being kept in a labour camp as a punishment for having attempted to escape. Soldiers who fought alongside Karlheinz, as well as Eva’s family, keep on telling her that it is futile to hope any longer. And finally she surrenders to the advances of Sebastian, who has taken care of her unselfishly for all these years. But then Karlheinz is suddenly released former the Russian prison...