In 2003 Melbourne, Jewish Holocaust survivor Lali Sokolov shares his story of love and resilience, told through fractured and traumatic memories, with novice writer Heather Morris. It starts in 1942, when he volunteers for "work duty" to aid the Slovakian war effort but finds himself sent to the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp. Those not murdered immediately are forced to build the emerging Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. The smell of death hangs in the air as Lali realizes he's condemned to work in a kill factory. When he's offered a job tattooing numbers onto prisoner's arms, he takes it in the hope of surviving. But unexpected meaning is given to this hell when he meets a beautiful Slovakian woman -- prisoner 4562. For Lali it's love at first sight, and before long "Gita," as he will come to know her, drives his will to survive. Through perseverance and manipulation of an SS guard, Baretzki, Lali finds Gita again, but the risks he takes to keep them both alive may backfire.
