In the 16th century in the Cévennes, a horse dealer by the name of Michael Kohlhaas leads a happy and prosperous family life. When a lord treats him unjustly, this pious, upstanding man raises an army and puts the country to fire and sword in order to have his rights restored.

On the night of 16 July 1942, ten year old Sarah and her parents are being arrested and transported to the Velodrome d’Hiver in Paris where thousands of other jews are being send to get deported. Sarah however managed to lock her little brother in a closed just before the police entered their appartment.Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist in Paris, gets the assignment to write an article about this raid, a black page in the history of France. She starts digging archives and through Sarah’s file discovers a well kept secret about her own in-laws.