Poland autumn 1942: in order to save them from genocide a Jewish doctor sends his two daughters, 18 and 20 years old, as forced labourers to Germany. At the beginning they call themselves Katarzyna and Elzbieta, but they have to permantently change their identities to hide their Jewish origin. Their escape takes them from a forced labour camp to a an engine faactory in the Ruhr area and then to vine-growers at the Rhine ending on a Rhine cruiser close to the Swiss border. While one of the sisters has a fair teint and blonde hair, and is often considered "aryan" just by her looks, the older experiences her dark hair increasingly as a burden, since she is too easily looked at as a Jew. In a time of permanent mortal danger the sisterly solidarity is put to a test.