As displaced persons after World War II, the Piech Family chose not to return to their home in Poland, but continued from an army camp in Italy, to a Polish Dependents camp in England, finally immigrating to Canada. Despite the tragic losses suffered during the war, the author's parents begin life with hope in this new land. As a precocious five-year-old she adapts to living in the multi-ethnic borough of Ville Emard in Montreal. She learns a new language, experiences prejudice, gets locked in a church, develops a life-long friendship, and spends evenings sitting with her father on the balcony observing the human traffic below their three-story tenement. There is humor in her perspective as she observes life from the margins, tries to understand the confusing world of adults, and works on a plan to one day be fully independent.