Vienna, April 1914: in order to avenge his mother's death, 17-year-old Oskar Heller takes a job as a stable boy in the stately household of the Grayn family. And then the unthinkable happens: despite his liberal minded attitudes - he abhors snobbery and the aristocracy's arbitrary ...

The Chen and von Steinitz families met during the Boxer War in 1900, when German troops occupied Peking. At that time, a friend­ship developed between a German officer and his Chinese negotiant.

As a result, two generations later, a little girl could be brought to safety in Brandenburg.

In the wake of the Night of Broken Glass in November 1938, the Finkelsteins, a Jewish couple, decide to flee Germany and manage to get hold of first-class tickets onboard a ship to Shanghai for themselves and their nine-year-old daughter Inge. What is a terrifying ordeal for her parents spells ...