Berlin. February 1947. It’s the coldest winter in living memory, the city lies in ruins, and hunger is everywhere. In the midst of this nightmare, two girls are struggling to believe in a future.

Lotte, 16, raised to believe in Nazi Germany, dreams of training as a fashion designer. But her schooling was disrupted by the war, her father is interned in the Soviet Union, and cleaning work is all she can find to help feed her family. Estera also 16, a Polish-Jewish orphan, still mourns her mother, whose death came soon after the war’s end. Her chance to emigrate to America is close, but how can she leave without knowing the fate of her missing younger sister?

Lotte and Estera cross paths in a displaced persons’ camp in American-controlled Berlin,  where Estera has found refuge and Lotte works with her mother. Worlds apart in upbringing, beliefs, and experience of war, mistrust is their first language. Yet their hopes for a better future bring them together.

But can two girls from opposite sides of history truly find friendship in the wreckage of war?