"If you meet Ruth or Edek or Bronia, you must tell them I'm going to Switzerland
to find their mother. Tell them to follow as soon as they can" Having lost thei
r parents in the chaos of war, Ruth, Edek and Bronia are left alone to fend for
themselves and hide from the Nazis amid the rubble and ruins of their city. They
meet a ragged orphan boy, Jan, who treasures a paperknife - a silver sword - wh
ich was entrusted to him by an escaped prisoner of war.
