Towards the end of World War II, people in big cities are at the mercy of air raids and death by starvation. A desperate young mother leaves her thirteen-year-old twin sons at their grandmother's house in the country, despite the fact that this grandmother is a cruel and bestial alcoholic. The villagers call her the Witch because she is rumored to have poisoned her husband long ago. Previously pampered, the twins must learn how to survive alone in their new, rural surroundings.