Deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, Jakub Rand is forced to sort through Jewish books for a so-called Museum of the Extinct Race. Hidden among the rare texts is a tattered prayer book, hollow inside, containing a small pile of dirt. Meanwhile Frantiska Roubickova contemplates her failed marriage, despairing of her conversion to Judaism. When the Nazis summon her two eldest daughters for transport, she must sacrifice everything to save them. Decades later, Bram Presser embarks on a quest to find the truth behind the stories his family built around these remarkable survivors.