In flashbacks the story of the twin-sisters Anna and Lotte is told, who meet after a long time in an Belgian health resort. The girls were seperated when they were six and their father had died and they ended up on different sides of the front.

Lotte, who suffered from tuberculosis comes to relatives in the Netherlands and Anna is brought to her uncle, who has a farm near Bamberg.
Lotte is very gently cared for and gets a good education, whereas Anna has to work hard and is not allowed to attend school. When Anna flirts with an SS-officer her uncle, who is a Nazi-opponent almost beats her to death. Finally Anna moves to work for Nazi-countess Charlotte von Falkenau, where she kind of feels happy.
Lotte studies and gets engaged with the Jewish musician David. She finds out that none of her letters has reached Anna and visits her in Germany. But the meeting is not very happy as both sisters already have too many prejudices.
At the end of the war Lotte gets to know, that Anna hab been married to a SS-officer and never wants to talk to her again, as David had been killed in Auschwitz.

When the two old women meet in Belgium, they hope to reconcile.