Young Martha Emrich is a humble, reticent, hard-working woman who has grown up in very modest circumstances. In 1945 she finds her herself in a situation in which she, against her will - saves the life of an antifacist refugee. At first she hides him in her house, later in a moment of imminent danger in a near-by lake. With the experience of her own courage, although unknown to anyone, she frees herself of all limitations of her previous life, thus after the liberation leaving behind the man who triggered this development but later failed.