Sulamit (Celeste Cid), the daughter of German-Jewish emigrants from Germany, grows up in Buenos Aires in the 1950’s. Here, Jews and Nazis live in close proximity with one another, having fled from Europe and been thrown together again in a foreign country. As a young girl, Sulamit gets to know Friedrich (Max Riemelt), a German boy who lives with his family on the other side of the road. An unusual intimacy soon develops between them. When Friedrich realises that his father was a high-ranking SS official, he breaks off all contact with his family and goes back to Germany to deal with his roots.

It is not long before he joins the German student movement full of fervour. Sulamit follows him a few years later but soon realises that his political commitment leaves no room for their love. Sulamit studies, later working as a translator, and starts a relationship with Michael, who loves and helps her. But her heart is still with Friedrich. When Friedrich leaves Germany to join an Argentinian guerrilla movement, they lose contact and he disappears without a trace. Sulamit sets off on a quest that takes her until the heart of Patagonia.