At the Brussels railway station, a Bulgarian antifascist bids farewell to his daughter Elitza. Yannis, his Greek comrade, will take her home. The train pulls out, and the little girl waves a last goodbye to her father. He is remaining in occupied Belgium to fight the Nazis. At Sofia railway station two passengers part. Elitza goes to her grandmother and to her uncle Hristo. They surround her with loving care and tenderness. Every morning, Uncle Hristo takes her on his bicycle to the best French college, where her grandmother has enrolled her. At the college, the child befriends a small Jewess Greta, who soon leaves for Egypt together with her parents. Elitza leaves alone. Uncle Hristo is arrested for subversive activities, and her grandmother is sent into internal exile to a small town near the country's southern border. Elitza is taken ill and is sent for a treatment to a seaside sanatorium. There a sailor brings her a letter from her father and a gift: a tiny ballerina pirouetting ...