Lavish adaptation of Wilhelm Hauff′s fairy tale: Young charburner Peter Munk dreams of joining the upper class. He makes a deal with the sinister Holländer-Michel, who offers to trade Peter′s human heart for one made of stone. Once he has the "cold heart" in his body, Peter eventually strikes a fortune and enjoys great wealth, but at the same time, he becomes a bitter and emotionless man – and, having lost all traces of humanity, even murders his wife Lisbeth. Only then does Peter Munk finally realize what has become of him, and he decides to regain his real heart from Holländer-Michel.

Summer 1938: renowned Viennese surgeon Professor von Benda is summoned by Gauleiter Seyss-Inquart to attend the Evian Conference on Jewish refugees. Disguised as a loyal Nazi physician, von Benda’s “mission” is to propose that participating nations purchase German Jews for 250 Reichsmark each, ostensibly saving them from deportation. Over ten days in Evian-les-Bains, von Benda navigates tense negotiations with diplomats and relief workers, confronting the moral abyss behind his government’s plan. As alliances form and falter around him, he watches the fates of refugees - and of Europe itself - unfold without judgment, bearing witness to a tragedy that history cannot forget.