the year is 1939. The Nazis are rounding up Polish Jews in ghettos all over the country, and Marissa and Elsa are no exception.After being crammed into cattle cars and shipped south to Auschwitz concentration camp, Marissa and Elsa become separated. Marissa, a seamstress by trade, is put to work in one of the large textile warehouses to make clothes and gloves for the soldiers. Elsa is forced into the mainstream population, where death lurks menacingly around every corner.Through all of the atrocities and horrors both women must face, their love for each other never wavers. While in the concentration camp, they meet a number of other courageous women who help them in their fight to both survive and reunite.