Set in 1938 Austria, just before and during the Anschluss, the film follows two 13-year-old best friends, Lise Mueller, [Kamie Harper], and Inge Dournenvald, [Jenny Lewis], as they navigate a country on the edge of radical change. Lise is Catholic while Inge is Jewish, and their friendship becomes a quiet, stubborn pull against the growing pressure around them. Their families are caught in the tides of power: Lise’s father is a Nazi sympathizer who travels back and forth to Germany to ready for the impending union, dragging his wife along and pulling his eldest son into the regime’s orbit. In contrast, Inge’s father, Franz Dournenvald, [Stephen Macht], refuses to believe that Hitler would actually annex Austria, even as old family warnings—delivered by Grandfather Oskar Reikman, [Ed Asner]—start to feel more like a premonition than a memory.
As the Nazi grip tightens, the regime’s brutal policies begin to reshape daily life. Jewish teachers are purged from public schools, books with non-Aryan characters are burned, and Jewish men are humiliated publicly as part of a broader campaign to erase Jewish presence from everyday society. The school uniform and seating charts become instruments of exclusion, pushing Jewish students to the back of classrooms and carving out a segregated space in a world that should have room for both girls. When Lise defies her father’s demand to stay away from Inge and instead sits beside her, she pays a painful price as her father strikes out in anger, a stark reminder of how fragile their friendship has become in a climate that rewards conformity and punishes defiance.
As the pressure intensifies, the characters face logistical and existential challenges that threaten their future. Oskar Reikman, the girls’ grandfather, manages to secure a visa for Yugoslavia and leaves, while Hannah Dournenvald, [Jane Alexander], Lise’s mother, loses her job under what the regime calls “needed cutbacks,” a euphemism for the Aryanization campaigns that aim to push Jews out of public life. Franz, Inge’s father, weighs the danger of his daughter’s friendship against his own fear of public disgrace, even as he admits that the burgeoning Nazi power could endanger their family entirely. The plot thickens when a fellow servant, Gustl, [Jeff Kizer], pressures the family with a false accusation of improper behavior involving their Aryan maid, Mitzi, promising to drop the claim only if they pay him a steep sum—ten thousand schillings—which they simply cannot afford.
To escape the mounting peril, the family looks toward emigration, but it’s not a simple path. The Yugoslav consul requires baptismal proof dating back to 1936, a rule the Dournenvalds cannot easily satisfy. They seek help from Father Bernard, a cautious priest at the cathedral, who questions the legal and spiritual implications of such a ceremony. Yet Inge reveals a practical, if risky, path: baptism could unlock the visas they need to leave. Lise’s resolute push persuades Father Bernard that their lives depend on the act, and a covert, hurried ceremony is carried out. With the rite completed, the Dourenvalds receive their visas, gather what little they can carry, and board a train leaving Austria behind—still pursued by Gustl and his crew.
Before departing, they say goodbye to Mitzi, the maid who remains loyal to their family despite the perilous laws, and Inge gives Lise a golden Jewish star as a tangible reminder of what they are leaving behind and what they are fleeing from. The journey is fraught with tension, fear, and the constant reminder of the choices that have led them to this moment. In the final moments, the narrator’s voice, provided by Jean Simmons, [Jean Simmons], reflects on the letters Inge writes to Lise after they separate. The film closes with a quiet, unanswered question: did Lise ever receive those letters, and did the light of their friendship survive the storm that tore them apart? The answer lingers in the open possibilities of memory and the enduring ache of friends who had to part ways to survive.
