Die Erntehelferin plot
Clara finds herself in a very desperate situation in 1946. As a refugee from the Sudeten-German Marienbad, she was forcibly billeted in a small village with her brother-in-law Johan and his four children. However, the inhabitants' aversion to the refugees, hunger and extreme poverty are not their only problems. Clara's sister died giving birth to Heidi. This now 6-year-old girl has TB and can only be saved with penicillin that can only be found on the black market. For Clara, who worked as a secretary in a dairy before the war in Mariënbad, there is only one way to get money: she has to present herself as a seasonal worker on Gut Braunfels' plantation.