In 1926 Germany, twin sisters Anna and Lotte Bamberg are separated after their parents' deaths. Anna stays in Germany with her ignorant Catholic uncle and aunt on their small property; Lotte contracts tuberculosis and moves to Holland.
Anna works on the farm and isn't sent to school; Lotte is raised by an upper-class family who makes sure she gets a good education. The sisters have no contact with each other, but they meet up briefly before the World War II years.
Later Anna marries a young SS officer and Lotte gets engaged to a Jewish musician. Their lives follow different and opposite paths with the war, but Anna never gives up hoping that they will be in each other's lives again.