Her mother was an orphaned ballerina, her father a physicist under pressure to work for the Germans. Remaining in Paris would be perilous, but how to leave undiscovered while traveling with a small child? With no family to take care of Zouky, her parents follow the advice of a trusted friend and leave Zouky in the Cours Sevigne in Vemce, where she spent the years during the war. This is a story of a six-year-old, in an unfamiliar place, struggling with new routines, curious about the war around her, finding comfort in imagined creatures and protective adults.