Ever since his father hit him for the first time as a child, Fritz wanted to prove to his father that he wasn't soft. At the age of fifteen, he left home to work. One day as a teenager, before he had moved to America, he bragged to the girl he liked, Eva, about how he would travel to America. She wanted to go too. They ended up getting married.

Now, in the year 1908, Fritz is the janitor at the school called Lake View near Lake Eerie. He is happy to be an essential part of the school, even if what he really wanted when he came to America was to own a restaurant with his wife, Eva. He is the only janitor and the only one who deals with the delicate boiler system. The boiler is dangerous as it could explode and kill him and possibly harm others in the school. One day, Fritz cleans up the school before classes begin early in the morning. The first teacher, a very tall woman named Katherine, comes in. Fritz doesn't like her, as Katherine is known to find the students disgusting because they are immigrants. The immigrants were seen as second-class citizens, and Fritz could never afford the pearls that Katherine wore.

Fritz continues about readying the school for the day. The school is impoverished and neglected by their town. The makeshift designs of the building are a fire hazard, and Fritz has warned the school administrators about this. He thinks of the impoverished conditions the children have to grow up in.

At 8 o'clock, Fritz realizes it is still cold in the school even though he has already started the boiler. He returns to the boiler room he had locked and sees three girls inside the room. He scolds them and tells them they shouldn't be there because it's dangerous. He doesn't tell their teacher so they won't be punished, but he hopes his gruff tone scares them from doing more dangerous things.

He anxiously checks the boilers but can't find the issue. An hour later, a fifth-grade girl runs to him to tell him that smoke is coming from the boiler. He checks on it and sends the child to tell her teacher to start a fire drill. A fire breaks out, and Fritz begins warning other teachers and ringing the bells as he has been trained. The fire proliferates, and only half the children, including his daughter Ella, can leave through the doors; the others are taken to windows. There is chaos in the halls, and more minor children are being trampled. Fritz does his best to help, but as panic grows, things become more and more helpless as students harm themselves, trying to escape through tiny exits. Fritz thinks of his other daughter, Helena, and hopes she can use her resourcefulness to escape.

Fritz cannot remember how to escape, but when he does, he is being treated outside the school while emergency workers try to get people out. More than a hundred children have died. He sees his daughter Ida being carried out, her hair and face burnt. He recognizes the belt buckle of one of his sons, who has died in the fire. He becomes hysterical with grief, so someone injects him with a sedative. He hears a police officer tell him that he will be questioned later on and knows he will likely be blamed for negligence.

When he comes home, he is afraid that Eva will blame him, but she is thankful that he survived. His other two children, Werner and Ella, are asleep in their beds, unharmed. Fritz can't get the horrors he witnessed that day from his mind. Eva tells him that people are placing blame on the stairwells, which should have been iron instead of wood. She says that the school's builders had warned the superintendent of the danger of the materials beforehand.

Fritz admits that something could have been wrong with the boiler he missed, but Eva still doesn't look at him accusingly and says that one person shouldn't be in charge of the boiler anyway. Even as Fritz blames himself, Eva insists that it wasn't his fault and that they must stick together to survive. Fritz admires the bravery of his wife in the face of all they've lost.

An hour later, Fritz has to go to the interview with the officials about the fire. He is questioned for several hours despite the pain from his injuries. They ask him the same questions for a long time. Then they bring a witness, a nine-year-old girl Fritz remembers as the student who alerted him to the smoke. Her name is Emma. They ask her questions, and she needs to give more accurate answers. Fritz tries to gently coax her to remember what happened. Fritz is angry that they are having her testify when she is a nine-year-old still healing from what happened that day. They continue questioning Emma, who becomes increasingly confused until Fritz blurts out that they were both in the basement when Emma had pointed out the smoke and that there may have been an issue with the boiler despite that he had checked them repeatedly. He reminded them of all the fire hazards, which they acknowledged, and told them they had already discussed.

Fritz goes home to his children, who are traumatized, wondering where their siblings are. Ella tells Fritz that Helena returned to the school to look for Ida. He tells Eva he will look for Helena, who was never found. He wants to protect Eva in that way, at least. Later, they go to the funeral for their lost children. He sees Katherine's grave, who had died trying to save her students. Fritz says a prayer for his children and for her.