The director sets out to discover how the death of his grandfather in the Spanish Civil War could split up his entire family for three generations. Like many other intellectuals at the time, Gustaf Munch- Petersen chose to volunteer in the International Brigades for his idealistic beliefs. He left his pregnant wife and little daughter in the middle of the night without saying goodbye. Was he a hero or a coward? With the ambition to break the taboo and reunite his family, the director takes us on a journey through the family secrets of three generations.