In 1944, in a concentration camp in Poland, a young Jewish woman, Hannah Silberstein, falls madly in love with Tomasz Limanowski, a Catholic political prisoner. In a gesture of mad audacity, they manage to escape the camp together. But the Nazis are always after them, forcing them into a precarious life underground. Tomasz takes Hannah to his mother’s house, but his mother doesn’t approve of Hannah, who is not only a Jew but a German. Tomasz leaves to work in the Polish resistance movement alongside his brother, promising to return soon for Hannah.
Tomasz’s mother tries to turn Hannah over to the Nazis, but the young woman suspects and goes to hide with Tomasz’s sister-in-law. When his brother returns home without Tomasz, Hannah refuses to believe Tomasz is dead, but after years go by, she moves to New York City. In 1976, now married and living in Brooklyn, Hannah sees a man being interviewed on television. The man is none other than Tomasz.