It's based on Irish writer John Boyne's best-selling novel of innocence existing within the most terrible evil.

The fictional tale os about two young boys caught up in events entirely beyond their control in Berlin 1942, when Bruno returns home from school one day; he discovers his belongings are being packed in crates.

His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.