At the beginning of World War II about 20.000 Jews escaped to Shanghai, where they lived over ten years in exile. The town was known to be the "Paris of the East" and immigrants did not need a visa. Among the refugees was Illo Heppner who travelled all the way with the transsibirian railway. In Shanghai she met her husband Ernest who had to corrupt someone to get on board of a ship to China. Fred Fields, a young journalist, comes to Shanghai aged 18 and comes into contact with the intellectual side of emigration. Siegmar Simon however has already to work with his 14 years. In 1943 the situation got worse when the Japanese started to isolate the Jews in ghettos.

In this documentary the survivors tell the story of their lives as immigrants in China.