Whilst dreaming, a little boy in the company of Tijl (Uilenspiegel?) travels centuries back to the fairytale world with the help of two balloons.

Two Hungarian children, Ylonka and Ferenc, are taken in as foster children by a Flemish family during World War II. During the war, they are pursued by the occupiers because their foster parents joined the resistance and were arrested. At first, they try to earn money together and end up with the traveling painter Fedor, but various hardships separate them. Ylonka is sent to a reform institution, while Ferenc is taken in by kindly priests at their monastery. When, after the war, they finally have a father and mother who treat them as their own, a legal decree forces them back to Hungary.