After fifteen-year-old Freda's father disappears on Crystal Night, she, her mother, and her younger sister flee Germany for the "safe haven" of Shanghai. But the safe haven becomes anything but "safe" when Freda's mother abandons her children. Forced to become an adult before her time, Freda finds strength, work, and new friends. She also joins the Junior Jewish Resistance, a small group of young people determined to show their defiance of Japanese and Nazi soldiers who are too close for comfort in their new home.