After the Soviet invasion of Lithuania in 1941, 14-year-old Dalia Grinkeviciute is deported to Siberia along with her mother and brother. She spends her youth in exile in the Altai region and the Arctic. In her early twenties, Dalia manages to escape. Back in Lithuania, she hurriedly writes down her memories of exile on loose sheets of paper and buries them in a jar in the garden out of fear of being discovered by the KGB. Shortly thereafter, Dalia is arrested by the KGB and deported again. It is only after her death that her writings are miraculously found in 1991. Today, they are part of the school curriculum in Lithuania and are considered one of the most important documents in the country's history.