The movie covers the experience of Chaim Olmer, Icek Altermann, Ben Helfgott, Arek Hershlikovic and other children that were held captive in concentration camps and have been brought to England after the war. Here, Oscar Friedmann and Leonard Montefiore as well as other volunteers want to try and rehabilitate the children.
This proves to be problematic as the children all suffer of trauma. They hide the bread they are given, sleep together under a bed and are at first afraid of what is going on, being reminded of the day to day life in the concentration camps.
They also have run ins on several occassions with the locals, who react with both disdain and anger, but also with curiosity.
Friedmann and his team teach the children english, help them express their experience via art therapy and tech them football, though tensions between the boys and their trainer rises, since the training methods remind them of the harassment they had to endure in the concentration camps.
When the children are told that most of their relatives are dead, they are shocked, but they also talk about weere they want to spend their lives, be it their old homes, britain or palestine.