Jewish Romek (Osment) is taken out of Krakow at his parents' behest to save him from the Nazi camps. A farmer agrees to pass the blond, blue-eyed boy off as a distant relative who has come to stay and the parish priest (Dafoe) quietly coaches the child in Catholic catechism so he can 'pass' in the suspicious community. The horrors and deprivations of war are generally seen through the eyes of the local children.