In the fall of 1956, 21-year-old Herbert Broschat boards an immigrant ship in Bremerhaven bound for Toronto. He wants to leave Germany—this devastated and torn-apart country—and head for an unspoiled land where “freedom is still to be found.” He befriends Erich Domski, a coal miner from Wattenscheid in the Ruhr region. But even in the Canadian wilderness, the two friends are haunted by their German past.