This is a story of coming of age in chaotic times during the war in the Pacific, from the perspective of a young woman in the Jewish community of Shanghai. We learn how events were perceived by people entrapped by war who endeavored to seek the truth through smuggled information, jammed radio broadcasts, and reading between the lines of Japanese censorship. The heroic efforts of people in the Jewish community in Shanghai to help refugees from the Holocaust are perhaps the most inspiring part of the narrative.