When 21-year-old Margot Bendheim tries to meet her mother and brother Ralph on the afternoon of January 20, 1943, to prepare for their escape from the Gestapo in Berlin, she learns that her brother has just been taken away. Her mother also does not show up, leaving her daughter a message: "I have decided to go with Ralph, wherever that may be. Try to make a life for yourself." Feeling abandoned and lost, Margot decides to go into hiding; she dyes her hair red and has surgery on her nose to avoid being recognized as Jewish. Life underground lasts for fifteen months, with helpers who do not all act selflessly. Three times she narrowly escapes the Gestapo. Then, in April 1944, she falls into the trap of Jewish "catchers" - she is deported to Theresienstadt and survives by sheer luck.