"Berlin, November 1943. The city is blanketed by explosions. Siblings Gerta and Max Hoffmann live a surprisingly carefree childhood amid the air raids. Berlin is a city going about its business, even as it's attacked almost nightly. But one night, the sirens wail, and the Hoffmanns' neighborhood is hit. A mortally wounded man comes to their door, begging to be let in. He asks for Karl, their father. Gerta and Max watch as Karl tries in vain to save...

"In 1941 twelve-year-old Karl is proud to be a member of the Hitler Youth, but when his father is killed on the Eastern Front everything changes--his family moves to the country to live with his grandparents, he encounters a brutal Gestapo officer, and he begins to realize that his sixteen-year-old brother has joined a youth group that opposes the Nazis." -- Provided by publisher.