Based on experiences of the author's family in Germany and Czechoslovakia before, during, and after World War II, this haunting novel is told through the diary of 12-year-old Lynette who describes growing up in a world unhinged by war and vividly portraying her longing, loss, and the search for home. When armed Czech partisans knock at her family's door one early morning in 1941, Lynette knows that she will be taken away, never to return. Poignant and personal, this account follows Lynette and her family as they are deported on coal wagons through devastated Central Europe.