The lives of a Nazi Officer, Polish Doctor and Jewish boy become inextricably linked, blurring the boundaries between good and evil.
Josef Kappholz is a seventeen year old Jew with visionary abilities. He has already foreseen the invasion of his homeland, and the destruction caused by the powerful Nazi’s as they smashed their way through Polish soil.
It is April 1942. Josef is a prisoner at Majdanek Concentration Camp. One night he becomes entangled in a plan of escape haphazardly concocted by two inmates. When the plan fails Josef is brought to the attention of brutal SS Officer Ernst Biermann; and there begins a tenuous and complicated relationship between the Officer and the boy.
Dr Leopold Kaplinsky lives a mile from the camp. From his office window he sees what everyone else sees but are too afraid to speak of; black smoke spewing from a distant chimney day and night. In his journal he logs the events he witnesses from his office window.
The Nazi invasion and persecution of Jews increases Kaplinsky's desire to escape. However, with regular visits from the Germans he feels as much incarcerated as those imprisoned inside the camp.
Biermann, Kappholz and Kaplinsky’s lives become entangled together in one hellish existence, where soon everything they have is stripped bare to one common goal.
To stay alive.