Huguette is a 17 year old Parisian girl fighting for her survival. She is pregnant after rape by a German solder in the days immediately before the end of World War II. After the violent death of her father and loss of her mother, she is forced to give up her baby upon birth. Alone, she proves herself strong willed and resourceful, first in her search for her baby, and afterward in building a new life, while eluding her father’s blackmarket dealers. She also must elude a police officer, Claude Leduc, who, although always kind to her, seems to find her no matter how clever her new identity. We follow her through her efforts to make a new life, while always looking over her shoulder. This book is a story of persistence and resilience in the days after the war, when things in Paris and Lyon remained disrupted and unstable.