A girl's happy childhood in the eastern peripheries of pre-war Poland is upended by World War II, when Soviet troops take control and are later pushed o-ut by the Nazi invasion. Tragic events force the author to flee her home and cross borders to save her life. She was sheltered by her cousins in the suburbs of Warsaw until the end of the war. It is a personal story of growing up in turbulent times punctuated by family tragedies. Eternal optimism, ambition, and love gave her strength to endure recurring hardships and establish new life in post-war communist Poland.