January 16, 1945: While the British and Americans prepare one of the biggest bombing raids of the war against Dresden, the young medical student Anna (Felicitas Woll), daughter of clinic director Carl Mauth (Heiner Lauterbach), fights for the lives of the patients in her clinic together with her future husband, the surgeon Alexander Wenninger (Benjamin Sadler). Conditions are difficult, the war is entering its final phase and everything is in short supply. Nevertheless, many still believe that Germany will win.

At the same time, an English bomber crashes near Dresden. The badly injured pilot Robert Newmann (John Light) manages to hide undetected in the basement of a Dresden hospital. When Anna discovers him, she mistakes the young man for a deserter who needs help. Before she can help him, the Gestapo search the building for a spy. Robert has to flee to safety. Under a false identity, he is officially admitted to hospital with a squad of wounded soldiers. Anna risks her life for this strange man, of whom she doesn’t even know his name.

The Allied attack is approaching. The people of Dresden are clueless. When Anna learns who Robert really is, her world collapses. He is the enemy, whose comrades are preparing to destroy the city. They both realize how difficult it is to make sweeping condemnations of an entire people when they suddenly find themselves face to face. Who is to blame and who had what reasons for what deed?

Anna’s engagement party, to which Gauleiter Mutschmann is also invited, turns into a disaster. Anna’s father hates the Nazis but has to cooperate with them in order to secure his family’s escape from the Russians.

Robert is discovered and imprisoned. Anna is forced by her father, her mother (Katharina Meinecke) and her sister Eva (Susanne Borman) to flee the city. Suddenly an air raid alarm sounds. In the general panic, Anna flees to free Robert. Alexander follows her. When they meet Robert, there is no time for recriminations. The three of them try to escape the all-consuming hell of flames. Their only salvation is the Frauenkirche. Bombs fall and firestorms rage through the streets of the city. They are surrounded. The only possible way out is through the overcrowded cellars, where thousands of people are already sitting together to escape the horror on the surface.

They breathe a sigh of relief when the noise of the bombs finally stops. They believe they have survived. The rivalries between the men flare up again. Until suddenly the second wave of attacks occurs….

In the end, Anna will have to choose between two men and two lives. The collapse of the Frauenkirche the next day will seal her fate. She will choose love and keep a secret for the rest of her life.

Dresden in the fall of 2005: the Frauenkirche is rededicated. More than a symbol for this city.