让路易公主（瓦莱莉·高利诺 Valeria Golino 饰）爱上了亚历山大伯爵，情投意合的两人很快就携手步入了婚姻的殿堂。婚后，让路易公主跟随着伯爵进入了皇宫，没想到国王十分中意公主活泼开朗的个性。伯爵的母亲明白，国王对公主的青睐能够替他们的家族换来无上的地位与荣耀，但对此一无所知的亚历山大伯爵依然沉浸在新婚的喜悦之中。
没过多久，让路易怀孕了，然而，这并没能够使国王对她的痴迷减少半分。最终，经过了权利和衡量，亚历山大伯爵亲手将自己最爱的女人送到了国王的身边，痴情的让路易心碎了，她决定通过国王来报复自私的伯爵一家人。

After his father is murdered by the Nazis in 1938, a young Viennese Jew named Ferry Tobler flees to Prague, where he joins forces with another expatriate and a sympathetic Czech relief worker. Together with other Jewish refugees, the three make their way to Paris, and, after spending time in a French prison camp, eventually escape to Marseille, from where they hope to sail to a safe port.