Marie-Laure lost her sight at age 7. Living in Paris with her father, she spends her days wondering the Museum of Natural History, where he works as a locksmith, learning about the past and the present of animals and man's relationship with nature. Marie-Laure is especially attracted to seashells and the ocean, even though she's never been. Grumbles of war threaten their existence, however, as Germany rearms and seizes territories in Eastern Europe. Following France's declaration of war in September 1939 and a swift German invasion in 1940, Marie-Laure and her father flee to Saint-Malo, where he has family. Her father has been entrusted with a cursed jewel from the museum's collection, and he has been tasked with protecting it.
Werner is a German orphan. Growing up, he is destined to work in the coal mines. Using scraps, he fixes a radio, and suddenly the orphanage catches music and words from around the world. Especially fascinating is a regular broadcast in French aimed at children, which the woman in charge of the orphanage translates for the children. His affinity for electronics and radio allows him to escape his future. He instead finds himself training in the German army to locate radio signals. Having left his little sister behind at the orphanage, Werner knows he is not suited for war, but fears the mines more. In 1944, following D-Day, his unit is sent to Saint-Malo to track down the signals of a resistance cell that is broadcasting German secrets to the allies.
Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel is a gem appraiser who has been tasked by the Nazis to identify jewels and turn them in to the government to finance the war. von Rumpel searches for the gem that was hiding at the Museum of Natural History. Even though it is rumored to be cursed, causing no end of suffering for the person who owns it, it also possesses curative powers, and as he is dying from cancer, he would gladly trade suffering for healing.
As the allies intensify their bombing of Saint-Malo, the story of these three characters become intertwined in a deadly confrontation ...
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