In August of 1944, the Soviet Red Army finally reaches the edge of Hitler's spreading empire. The two armies clash in bloody battles amid the bitter cold and hostile lands. With arrival of the war, life for Asta and her sister, Sophie, will never be the same.
Bombs and gunfire began to rage around them, destroying their city, forcing them to flee to the countryside. As word arrives of the atrocities from the Soviets and the Nazis, it's clear that they are safe nowhere. Many evacuate, and Asta and Sophie and their mother join them, leaving the only home they have ever known, hoping to reach the Baltic Sea and escape to a new life on one of the transport ships.
It is a dangerous journey, followed by devastation when their transport is sunk in the harbor by the Red Army's submarines. The sisters survive but are refugees in their own country, daughters displaced by war. They seek refuge in the nearby woods, where they find other children forced into a similar situation. Children who have lost their families and, out of fear for their lives, have chosen to hide and live in the swamps instead. Each day brings them closer and closer to winter, and living in the woods is a deadly situation, surrounded by wild animals, war, and very little food. As children on neither side of the war, can the sisters find a way to stay together and survive?
