Lizzie's mother, a zookeeper, persuades the zoo director to allow Marlene, an orphaned elephant that has bonded with Lizzie and her younger brother, Karl, to be kept in their garden; when Dresden is bombed, the family flees with thousands of others but with an elephant in tow.
In 1944, Elizabeth's mother works at Dresden Zoo, where her favorite animal is the elephant, Marlene. When the animals must be killed to prevent them running amok when the town is bombed, Elizabeth's mother moves Marlene into the back garden.
