Germany, 1939. Hella Arnold is 10 years old when she contracts a mysterious illness. She repeatedly has to stay in the hospital for long periods, missing school and unable to join the young girls like her friends. Hella becomes an outsider, and her world becomes increasingly restricted. All she wants is to belong like everyone else. At 14, Hella learns about special clinics where severely ill children like her can receive help. She asks the chief physician of the hospital for a referral to one of these clinics. When her family doctor and parents hear about it, they are horrified: no child has ever returned alive from these specialized children's hospitals...