Gerta Schnirch

Gerta grows up in 1930s Brno in a mixed Czech-German family, which brings her into conflict with her father as he embraces Nazi ideology. Despite this, they remain connected through their shared love of music. During the occupation, Gerta joins the student resistance with her beloved Karel, but the war takes everything from her and leaves her with a dark secret that shapes her future. After the war, though innocent, Gerta is forcibly included in the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia and experiences firsthand the cruelty of its violent phase, and must leave her hometown with her infant daughter. She manages to stay in Czechoslovakia with her little daughter, survives the hardest years on a rural farm, reunites with Karel, and returns to Brno hoping for a normal life—yet the past continues to haunt her.