A remarkable first novel that centers around Serene, a young girl whose father has vanished from their small Hungarian village just before World War I, leaving his beleaguered Jewish family to fend for themselves. Serene is 5 1/2 years old when we meet her in 1913. For the next six years, she seeks through dreams and visions to recover her father and to deal with the conflicting values and beliefs of her tightly knit family and the society which is unraveling around her.