A fairytale-like novel set during the height of World War II finds a childless, impoverished woodcutter's wife risking her safety to take in and protect a Jewish baby, a twin abandoned under desperate circumstances.

Forced to run 1939 Warsaw's soup kitchens to help the Gestapo maintain an illusion of order, a social worker learns small ways to defy her employers while helping smuggle essential supplies to criminalized Jewish families.

Vienna, late 1930s. Bright, red-headed Inge Eisenger leads a privileged life with her glamorous, distant mother. When forced to flee from Nazi-occupied Austria to Switzerland, Inge sees her young life turned upside down. She hopes to finally connect with her mother during their escape, but her mother soon abandons her. Vulnerable and alone, Inge makes her way to Paris before reuniting with her grandmother in Central France. But even there, Inge endures...