It is 1927. In rural Bohemia a son is born to Josef, leader of a company of Coppersmith Gypsies, and his wife Anna. For the benefit of his people he is named Emil, but his real name, known only to his mother, is Yenko. Yenko is the prince of his tribe, treasured and protected from the hardships imposed on his people. But his childhood world is soon overwhelmed by the Great Depression of the 1930s, the rise of Nazism and the calamity of the Second World War. Interned in a camp, Yenko faces the hardest decision of his life, to escape alone or stay and risk perishing with his family.