the film takes place in the years 1944 and 1945 towards the end of world war ii in the buchenwald concentration camp. prisoners in the nazi concentration camp risk their lives by taking in a young jewish boy rescued from a polish ghetto. the camp commander hears about the boy and tightens up on the already cruelly treated prisoners. they whisk the boy away from being discovered, always staying one step ahead of the nazi guards and the ireful commandant. the boy is eventually discovered and the prisoners who protected him now face certain death. they are freed by the allies in a dramatic but altogether expected turn of events.