Berlin, Germany, 1939. WWII
A Jewish couple, Herschel and Vera Stern, are selling up to start a new life in New Zealand. Among their chattels is a Marklin train set in the spare room. Herschel is impatient to leave Hitler’s ‘anti-Semitic hellhole’. Vera still dreams of ‘my Germany’.
Fritz Hauptmann, an SS officer, knocks on their front door. He demands to see and play with the train set.