Among the deportees, Ellis Hertzberger, from Rotterdam, was sent to a transit camp as a doctor. The young Pole, Josef Bednarz, was placed in the service of a farming family in southern Germany, who mistreated him.
Josef Bednarz develops a romantic relationship with Marta, the niece of the local Nazi party leader, despite the risks involved. It is strictly forbidden for Germans to have relations with forced laborers, on pain of death.
After the war, as "displaced persons", a small number of forced laborers were able to return to their homeland. Some, like the young Pole Josef Bednarz, decided to stay in the enemy country, despite the trauma.