This film is set in Germany in 1935. A ten-year-old
girl, Eva, and her family, witness an older woman
taunting a Jewish family at an outdoor café. The
gathering crowd watches on with amusement. Eva's
initial delight at the spectacle is replaced with
confusion when the taunts grow increasingly more
humiliating. Suddenly she senses the competing
worldviews this scene provokes in others -- everything
from laughter to disgust and apathy. Yet no one steps
in for the family. Just as Eva begins to empathize
with the family's terrified young son, violence erupts
unimpeded by anyone. The boy watches helplessly as his
father is beaten, and his horror becomes Eva's horror.
She finally looks to her father to help, and when
Arthur refuses to get involved, Eva's perfect faith in
him is lost.