In the unique landscape of the Camargue (France) during World War II, Lorenzo lives among the salt flats and the flamingos. There are lots of things he doesn't understand-but he does know how to heal animals, how to talk to them; the flamingos especially. He loves routine, and music too: and every week he goes to market with his mother. It's there he meets Kezia, a Roma girl, who helps her parents run their carousel-and who shows him how to ride the wooden horse as the music plays.

But then the German soldiers come, with their guns. Everything is threatened, everything is falling apart: the carousel, Kezia and her family, even Lorenzo's beloved flamingos. Yet there are kind people even among soldiers, and there is always hope. . .