After her father disappears on Crystal Night, fifteen-year-old Freda, her mother and Freda's 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 toward Japanese and Nazi soldiers, who are too close for comfort in their new home.