Pippa meets her ex-girlfriend Jael at a wedding party. The encounter triggers memories not only of the end of their relationship, but also of the trauma they experienced together. Since a queerphobic assault, Pippa has a post-traumatic stress disorder, which makes enjoying the here and now impossible. When Pippa has a panic attack, Jael and the group of friends manage to calm her down and Pippa understands that she can finally overcome her fears.

Gerta grows up in 1930s Brno in a mixed Czech-German family, which brings her into conflict with her father as he embraces Nazi ideology. Despite this, they remain connected through their shared love of music. During the occupation, Gerta joins the student resistance with her beloved Karel, but the war takes everything from her and leaves her with a dark secret that shapes her future. After the war, though innocent, Gerta is violently forced into the wild expulsion and must leave her hometown with her infant daughter. She survives the hardest years on a rural farm, reunites with Karel, and returns to Brno hoping for a normal life—yet the past continues to haunt her. The two-part TV film Gerta Schnirch offers a personal view of 20th-century history through the fate of a woman caught between two worlds.