In December 1970, Henryk, a final-year student of electrical engineering at the Technical University of Gdansk, Poland, is involved in a street demonstration of Polish shipyard workers in which twenty people are killed. Because of his involvement, Henryk believes that his arrest is imminent, and he frantically stows away on a ship to Denmark. But he leaves behind his first love, Ann, his parents, and his best friend, who is a nuclear physicist. From Denmark, he goes to Hamburg, Germany, immigrates to Australia, surfs, and studies the safety of nuclear reactors. But home beckons.

Eight years later, Henryk crosses the Iron Curtain in search of Ann. But in the era of the Cold War, tight security, and the Solidarity resistance, his Australian passport does not give him the safety he hopes for. Faced with the frightening prospect of losing everything he's worked for, Henryk must choose between his past and his future.