The innocence of youth is shattered for a nine-year-old Parisian Jewish girl when Nazi's tear her family apart.

SYNOPSIS:

World War II began quite out of sight for little Ida Bialek and her Parisian family. The distant thunder of heavy guns was overlaid with jump ropes and children’s games. That all crumbled when the Wehrmacht marched down her street with tanks in tow as France spectacularly collapsed.

Their Jewish religion suddenly a liability, Ida, her mother Deborah, sister Rosalind and brother Henri are victimized after French collaborators steal their father away. The future is suddenly treacherous.

Rosalind, a blossoming young woman, rebels by joining the underground. In a breach of confidence, her cell is compromised by once comfortable acquaintances and her boyfriend is killed in the raid. She is taken to jail and her release is a “mission” Deborah gives her youngest child.

Through fearless innocence Ida manages to persuade the uninspired police to release her sister, taking a wounded Rosalind back to their unnerved mother. Desperate, Deborah takes her children to a neighbor, who reluctantly agrees to hide them, but only so long.

Impoverished and frantic Deborah gives Ida a second “mission”, to dance for the audience of a local puppeteer who favors Ida’s charm. Alone, she braves the tempestuous hour while Deborah cares for the injured Rosalind, and naiveté takes a dark turn.

The coveted five francs in her pocket, Ida unwittingly leads the gendarmes to their hidden home. The family is summarily arrested and deported to French concentration camps, save Rosalind who escapes by sheer chance.

Ida and Henri are interred at a “children’s” installation where life is stark and conditions harsh. Friends go missing, belongings are currency and survival is a constant battle. Food is light, work is heavy and hope is distant.

Deborah suffers extreme exposure resulting in a near fatal fever, her very existence the province of fate. A fate that already purged her husband at Birkenau.

Reconnected with the underground, Rosalind organizes a harrowing liberation of her mother. A delirious Deborah stumbles away from her chaotic field hospital only to pass out on the doorstep of a safe house. From there she and Rosalind travel to the “Safe Zone,” where plans to rescue Ida and Henri must come quickly.

A guardian angel in the form of a Franco/Italian Jew named Calibri spirits the children from their prison, posing as an adoptive parent with deep pockets. He purchases their freedom and takes them on a dangerous train ride to Vichy, where their mother and sister wait with hopeful arms.

Based on actual events.