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Initial Situtation
Marie is blind and living comfortably with her father in Paris. On occasions she visits her father at work (the museum). Werner is living with his sister Jutta in an orphanage called Children House. They listen to banned foreign broadcasts on the radio. Werner develops his passion for technology through Etienne's science and tech broadcasts. He gets told that coal mining is his only future.
Conflict
World War II begins. Werner gets recruited into the Hitler Youth and Marie and her father flee to Saint-Malo to her great uncle Etienne's house.
Complication
Werner sees a French girl on the swings and watches her get killed by one of his coworkers for owning a radio. This leads Werner to question his choice of becoming a Nazi and the motives of the Nazi regime. Von Rumpel finds out about the Sea of Flames and wants to find the real one so he can live longer than the four months he has left. Marie's father goes missing.
Climax
Werner hears Marie reading Twenty Leagues Under the Sea on the radio. Volkheimer hears Clare de Lune and gains hope to live and risks it all to throw grenade and escapes. Werner hears Marie whisper that there is a German in her house and is on the floor beneath her. Marie realizes she has the Sea of Flames.
Suspense
Werner manages to be freed from the Hotel of Bees and runs towards Etienne's house to save Marie from von Rumpel. We wonder if von Rumpel will find Marie before Werner gets there.
Denouement
Werner meets Marie and they fall in love. They share a can of peaches and stories of their childhood and listen to the radio together until they hear the cease fire. Marie takes Werner to see the grotto and returns the Sea of Flames to the sea. She gives the grotto's key to Werner and they both go on their separate ways.
Conclusion
Werner gets blown up in land mine and Marie returns to Paris with Etienne. They find out that her Marie's father died in prison camp. Werner's sister Jutta returns the key and model of the house to Marie.
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