Two amateur circus kids from a poor Ukrainian village, ten-year-old Barbu and his older sister Mimma, are sold to a circus artist called Caruso who promises them a career in the West. Caruso smuggles them to Berlin and separates them from each other. Mimma is sold to prostitution, while Barbu is taught to snatch purses together with an older Albanian boy Marcel. Barbu finds out about Mimma's fate and decides to free her from the brothel.