This German film is written and directed by Jiri Weiss. This unusual love story begins in Czechoslovakia in 1935 and concludes at the end of World War II. Michel Piccoli plays Ernst, a distinguished Jewish doctor who marries his German maid after his wife betrays him. In another stirring performance, Marianne Saegebrecht (Bagdad Cafe) is featured as Martha, a hard-working woman whose life is transformed by this marriage of convenience.
Ernst and Martha's love and devotion is severely tested when the Nazis force them to move to Prague. Living in poverty and with little hope of escaping the Nazi persecution of Jews, they do their best to look out for each other's interests. The film's surprising conclusion spells out the meaning of true love.