1942-1943 German-occupied Warsaw. A young Polish woman, Irena Sendler, as a social worker, receives permission to visit the Warsaw ghetto. Realizing that the Jews are doomed, Irena persuades them to give her their children. Sendler takes the teenagers out through the sewers, takes the kids out in bags and tool boxes. She attaches them to monasteries and acquaintances. Someone reports on Irena, she is arrested, tortured and sentenced to death.