Amidst the Nazi invasion of France in 1942, a young girl is evacuated to Switzerland but is still haunted by the terrors she has witnessed.

Marie-Louise is a 1944 Swiss German and French language Swiss film directed by Leopold Lindtberg and an uncredited Franz Schnyder. The film, distributed in the U.S. by Arthur Mayer and Joseph Burstyn, was the first foreign language film ever to win an Academy Award, receiving the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Together with 300 children from France, Marie-Louise (Josiane Hegg) is allowed to travel to Switzerland for three months during the war in 1943. Foster parents take in the weak, malnourished boys and girls. Only Marie-Louise was not picked up. Red Cross volunteer Hedi Rüegg (Anne-Marie Blanc) decides to take the frightened child home, knowing full well that her father (Heinrich Gretler) will not like it. However, Marie-Louise quickly wins the sympathy of the bearish factory director. Swiss defense fighters flying past scare the girl so badly that she has to be treated in hospital. This shakes up the town's community. The factory workers work overtime to provide another group of French children with a holiday in a mountain home. And director Rüegg, now completely besotted with 'his' Marie-Louise, does not want her to return home under any circumstances. But for the time being, everything looks as if the law is stronger than the stirrings of a good heart.—SRF