Paris, 1940. Twenty-year-old Michel Bonnet lives on the edge of the law, finding work where he can at the horse fairs on the outskirts of the city. But when Paris falls to the Nazis, Michel escapes as a stowaway on a secret midnight train bound for the south. It's a journey that will change his life forever -- he's joined the circus. It's there Michel first sees Frieda - dark-haired, mysterious and also fleeing the Germans. Homeless and hungry, Michel would do anything for a safe place to sleep... and the chance to spend one more hour with her. But there's something Frieda isn't telling him, a secret she has sworn to carry to her grave. As Michel leaves Paris behind for the lavender fields and hillside villages of the rural south, he's in more danger than he could ever know...