Content Warning: This section discusses wartime violence, the Holocaust and antisemitism, and death.

On September 1, 1939, 12-year-old Lidia Durr is visiting her grandfather in the country outside Warsaw, Poland. She is with her older brother, Ryszard, and her mother (Janina, or “Mama”) and father (“Papa”). She argues with Mama about wanting to go fishing with her father, but Mama insists that she stay and help around the house.

Angrily, Lidia goes downstairs to the piano. She plays Chopin’s “Minute Waltz” loudly and poorly to annoy her mother. When Mama comes to yell at Lidia, she runs out of the house to collect eggs.

Walking through the field toward the barn, Lidia hears a plane overhead. She assumes that it’s the Polish military—a common sight at the time as Poland defends its borders against Germany. However, she is shocked when she sees the Nazi cross on its wings. As she watches, the plane drops a bomb, destroying their barn. Papa yells to her, and the two run back toward the house as the plane makes another pass and shoots at them.

Inside, they hear an announcement that the Germans have invaded Poland. They request all able men to join the military, and Lidia thinks of how Papa fought in World War I.