The true story of Fey Von Hassel, daughter of Ulrich von Hassell who was part of the circle of anti-Nazis who tried to assassinate Hitler in 1944. When Hitler survived the bomb plot, von Hassell was arrested and executed.

Though his daughter knew nothing of the plot, she too was arrested at her husband's country house at Brazza, near Venice, and was moved to Austria with her sons, then aged three and two. There the boys were literally wrenched away from her and sent to an orphanage run by the SS.