One night in autumn 1944, a gunshot echoes through the alleyways of a small town in occupied Poland. An S.S. officer is shot dead by a young Polish Jew, Margarita Ejzenstain. In retaliation, his commander orders the execution of thirty-seven Poles - one for every year of the dead man's life. Margarita must flee the brutal advance of the Soviet army with her new-born baby. And so begins a thrilling historical saga of intermingled destinies and events that reverberate from that single act of defiance.