Afro-Caribbean sailor Lionel Romney was born in Dominican Republic in 1912 and raised on Saint Martin Island. As a young man, he signed on to a cargo ship to see the world. But his longing for freedom turned into a tragic odyssey. He survived eleven months in a concentration camp. His story illustrates how Black people were systematically persecuted under the Nazi regime.

Decades after the war, Lionel Romney entrusted his memories to his daughter, Mary. Her journey from the Caribbean through Italy to Austria forms the framework of the film, which shines a light on a chapter of European history that has been suppressed to this day.