Blind since she was 6, Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast. In German, Werner, an orphan boy, wins a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, becomes a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure.