Inspired by her own family's experiences in Ukraine before, during and after World War II, the author reimagines their story, following the life and experiences of 16-year-old Katya, beginning in 1929 Kyiv and then, seventy years later, a young widow uncovers long-hidden family secrets about their past.

Despite their political differences Nyl, a young Ukrainian farmer, and Alice, a Canadian girl whose father has come to the Soviet Union, struggle to survive the famine-genocide known as the Holodomor, when the forced collectivization of the Ukrainian farms and hard winters led to mass starvation and death. Ever since the Soviet dictator, Stalin, took control of the farms in the Ukraine like the one Nyl's family lives on, there is less and less food...