Europe, on the eve of the Second World War, and a Jewish family feels the Nazi danger closing in. Led by their indomitable mother, Marie, the Reesers make a daring escape from under watchful eyes of the Gestapo, fleeing their comfortable home in Czechoslovakia to safety and their new life in Canada. Their lives are saved but all else is lost, including four beautiful and valuable paintings that Marie loved. In all the years that follow, she never gives up hope that they will be found and returned, symbols of their vanished world.