Pierrot's mother Émilie dies of tuberculosis, leaving him orphaned and alone in Paris.

Unable to afford his care, Mrs. Bronstein arranges for Pierrot to live at an orphanage in Orléans.

Pierrot travels by train across Germany toward Salzburg to live with his aunt Beatrix.

Pierrot arrives at Berghof, a remote mountain mansion where his aunt Beatrix works as head housekeeper.

Beatrix warns Pierrot to abandon his French identity, change his name to Pieter, and never mention Anshel.

While exploring the Berghof library, Pierrot turns around and comes face to face with Adolf Hitler.

Hitler gives Pierrot a Hitlerjugend uniform and makes him swear a personal oath of loyalty.

Hitler draws Pierrot into his inner circle, sharing anti-Semitic ideology and having him read Nazi propaganda.

At a Christmas Eve dinner, Pierrot shouts for Hitler not to eat the cake, exposing Beatrix and Ernst's poisoning plot.

Ernst hurls the poisoned cake at Hitler and flees; both Ernst and Beatrix are captured and executed.

Hitler personally awards Pierrot the honorary rank of Scharführer in the Hitlerjugend despite his young age.

Pierrot forcibly assaults Katarina at Eva Braun's birthday party; Emma storms in and holds a knife to his throat.

As Allied victory nears, Berghof empties and American soldiers arrive, pulling Pierrot from his hiding place.

American soldiers escort Pierrot to the Golden Mile Camp, where he is detained as disarmed enemy forces.

Pierrot spots Anshel's published novel in a Paris bookstore, leading to a reunion where Anshel agrees to write his story.

The story follows orphaned Pierrot Fischer from his mother's death in Paris through his placement at an orphanage and his journey to live with his aunt Beatrix at Berghof, Adolf Hitler's mountain retreat. Arriving at this isolated and fearful environment, Pierrot is warned to abandon his French identity and conceal his friendship with the Jewish Anshel, but instead grows dangerously close to the Nazi leader. Hitler draws Pierrot into his inner circle through gifts, ideology, and personal attention, transforming the once-innocent boy into a cruel follower willing to betray those who love him. The catastrophic consequences of his corruption include his exposure of Beatrix and Ernst's plot to poison Hitler, directly leading to their executions. After the war ends, Pierrot is detained as a Nazi collaborator before wandering Europe in guilt and silence, finally returning to Paris where Anshel offers forgiveness and agrees to help tell Pierrot's story.

Pierrot's descent into Nazi ideology and his eventual path to redemption.

Pierrot and his deaf neighbor Anshel Bronstein form a close friendship built on sign language and shared storytelling.

The Durand sisters welcome Pierrot to the orphanage, declaring that color, race, and creed mean nothing to them.

Hugo repeatedly bullies Pierrot at the orphanage until Josette defends him by hurling an anti-Semitic slur at Hugo.

Pierrot receives a letter from his previously unknown Aunt Beatrix in Austria, offering to take him in.

Sister Simone gives Pierrot the novel Emil and the Detectives as a farewell gift when he leaves the orphanage.

Upon Pierrot's arrival at Berghof, Herta confiscates and burns his French clothes, replacing them with oversized German garments.

During a shopping trip to Berchtesgaden, Ernst warns Pierrot never to mention Anshel's name while living at Berghof.

Cook Emma takes Pierrot outside to help select and slaughter chickens; the sudden act of killing leaves him shaken.

Beatrix instructs Pierrot to write to Anshel telling him to stop sending letters to Berghof.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor arrive at Berghof for diplomatic talks with Hitler, with Pierrot serving as honorary footman.

Pierrot discovers Anshel's final letter hidden inside his copy of Emil and the Detectives and throws it into the fire.

Pierrot secretly overhears Beatrix and Ernst quietly discussing a plot to poison Hitler.

As the last servants and soldiers depart Berghof, Herta tells Pierrot the only path to redemption is owning his actions.

Working as a dockworker in Antwerp, Pierrot realizes his friend Daniel survived a Nazi concentration camp.

Pierrot visits the destroyed orphanage in Orléans and writes an apology letter to Ernst's sister for his role in Ernst's death.

These events trace the many relationships and moments of moral guidance that surrounded Pierrot but ultimately could not prevent his corruption. From his close friendship with Anshel and the welcoming kindness of the Durand sisters, Pierrot is consistently surrounded by figures who model tolerance and decency. Upon arriving at Berghof, the house staff—Herta, Ernst, Emma, and Beatrix—each offer warnings and quiet guidance that Pierrot steadily disregards as Hitler's influence deepens. Key moments such as Pierrot's discovery and destruction of Anshel's final letter and his eavesdropping on the poisoning conspiracy mark his progressive betrayal of those who genuinely care for him. After the war, shattering encounters with a concentration camp survivor and the ruins of the orphanage force Pierrot to confront the human cost of the regime he served. Taken together, these events show the people and chances for moral clarity that Pierrot was offered but chose to abandon.

The friendships, warnings, and moral landmarks Pierrot ignores on his path to corruption.

Pierrot's father Wilhelm, broken by his World War I experiences, abandons the family and dies after being struck by a train.

Neighbors helping place Pierrot after his mother's death remark that life is growing increasingly dangerous for Jews in Paris.

On a train through Germany, a group of teenage Hitlerjugend steal Pierrot's sandwiches and mock him for being French.

During a shopping trip, Beatrix explains to Pierrot how Wilhelm's wartime trauma permanently damaged his mind and spirit.

Defying warnings to cut contact, Pierrot secretly continues writing to Anshel using a code—Pierrot signs as the dog, Anshel as the fox.

Hitler tells Pierrot about his wartime dog Fuchsl being stolen and whispers a dark violent threat that deeply frightens the boy.

Pierrot calls his father a coward for letting weakness defeat him, causing Beatrix to openly regret bringing her nephew to Berghof.

Hitler brings Pierrot to a secret meeting where Nazi officials discuss plans to build concentration camps with gas chambers disguised as showers.

A Nazi official mocks Pierrot's meaningless Scharführer title; Pierrot recognizes him as the man who stepped on his hand at the train station years earlier.

When Emma refers to Anshel as his old friend from Paris, an enraged Pierrot strikes her to the ground.

Katarina flatly refuses Pierrot's invitation to Eva's birthday party; her terrified father immediately overrides her and accepts on her behalf.

Alone at the emptying Berghof, Pierrot reads in a newspaper that Hitler and Eva Braun have committed suicide.

Hiding from American soldiers in a Berghof closet, Pierrot rediscovers his long-lost copy of Emil and the Detectives.

In Amsterdam, Pierrot spots Katarina playing violin; when she sees him, she holds his gaze with utter contempt.

Pierrot learns that Hugo, the orphanage bully once taunted for being Jewish, died a hero in the French resistance.

This pool focuses on the decisive moments of choice and revelation that steered Pierrot from innocent child to corrupted Nazi follower and, ultimately, toward redemption. Beginning with his father Wilhelm's traumatic abandonment, which left Pierrot with a desperate need for belonging, the events show how Hitler exploited that vulnerability through carefully calculated attention and indoctrination. Critical turning points include Pierrot's secret coded correspondence with Anshel, his chilling exposure to plans for the Holocaust, and his violent assault on Emma, each marking a further step in his moral collapse. The final stages of the war bring jarring reversals of fortune—Hitler's suicide and the miraculous rediscovery of Emil and the Detectives signal that Pierrot's buried past is resurfacing. His eventual reunion with Anshel, shadowed by the revelation that the orphanage bully Hugo died a resistance hero, makes painfully clear just how different the path Pierrot chose was from the one he could have taken.

The pivotal decisions and discoveries that drove Pierrot's transformation and eventual redemption.