Anna and her friend Elsbeth pass Hitler campaign posters in Berlin and discuss Anna's Jewish heritage.

Anna goes to check on her sick father and finds his bed empty — he has fled Germany overnight.

The family crosses the German-Swiss border while Mama grips her handbag tightly through a tense passport inspection.

Papa greets the family on the Zurich train station platform with a long, emotional, relieved embrace.

Anna falls gravely ill with a high fever in the Zurich hotel and drifts in and out of consciousness.

Anna recovers from her fever and learns Hitler has won the election and the Nazis have confiscated the family's home and possessions.

The family moves from the expensive Zurich hotel to a cheaper inn in a village on Lake Zurich.

Onkel Julius visits the family in Switzerland but dismisses Papa's urgent pleas to stay, confident he is not in danger.

Papa announces the family will move to Paris because Swiss newspapers refuse to publish his anti-Nazi writing.

At a crowded border station, a porter rushes Papa and the children toward a train that turns out to be bound for Germany.

Anna starts at a French school in Paris and is overwhelmed, understanding almost nothing in her classes.

Anna automatically answers a question in French without first translating from German, realizing the language has finally clicked.

A German stranger named Herr Rosenfeld visits Papa and delivers Onkel Julius's watch and a brief farewell note.

An English film company agrees to buy Papa's script, providing enough money for the whole family to move to England together.

The family arrives in London in the rain and Anna confidently tells Max that they will soon learn English.

When Hitler's rise to power threatens their safety, Anna's father flees Germany overnight, and the rest of the family follows him to Switzerland after a tense border crossing. Anna falls gravely ill in Zurich and recovers to learn that Hitler has won the election and the Nazis have seized the family's home and all their possessions. After nearly a year in Switzerland, Papa decides to move the family to Paris, where French newspapers are willing to print his anti-Nazi writing. In Paris, Anna struggles intensely with the French language before finally experiencing a breakthrough moment of fluency. A German stranger arrives with devastating news about a beloved family friend, followed almost immediately by a letter that saves the family from yet another painful separation. The novel closes as the family arrives in rainy London, with Anna confidently predicting that they will soon master English just as they mastered French.

The headline story of one Jewish family's flight across Europe.

Max and his friend Gunther steal a Nazi badge from a schoolmate and flush it down the toilet.

Mama explains that Papa escaped overnight to Prague after a tip-off, and warns the children to tell absolutely no one.

The Reichstag building burns down and Mama tells the children she suspects the Nazis set the fire themselves.

Anna must choose one stuffed toy to bring to Switzerland and picks a new dog instead of her beloved Pink Rabbit.

Anna and Max laugh imagining Hitler playing with their Snakes and Ladders set and cuddling Anna's Pink Rabbit.

A German family on holiday at the inn forbids their children from playing with Anna and Max because they are Jewish.

Omama visits the family in Switzerland; her little dog Pumpel falls into the lake and drowns.

Papa travels alone to Paris to meet newspaper editors and investigate whether the family could move there.

The family spends the Bastille Day celebrations dancing, eating, and singing through the streets of Paris all night with the Fernands.

Anna wins a prize from the Mayor of Paris for writing one of the twenty best French compositions of the year.

Max is awarded the Prix d'Excellence for being the top student in his entire Paris class.

Papa buys a broken antique sewing machine as a gift for Mama, and Madame Fernand must go with him to negotiate its return.

The family's concierge makes antisemitic remarks to Mama and Papa furiously throws her out of the apartment.

Papa and Mama tell Anna and Max that the children must live with Omama while their parents establish themselves in England.

Mama's cousin Otto meets the family in London, looking unexpectedly shabby and crumpled compared to how he appeared in Berlin.

Beneath the headline events of the family's flight, a series of smaller but significant moments reveal the texture of their lives as refugees. From a schoolyard scuffle in Berlin to the casual cruelty of German tourists at a Swiss inn, the children encounter antisemitism in ways they only partially understand. In Switzerland, the family receives painful news about friends left behind in Germany, and the children begin to grasp the financial hardships their parents are quietly managing. Life in Paris brings moments of genuine joy alongside mounting domestic strain, culminating in a humiliating confrontation with their concierge and a devastating proposal to separate the family. The novel closes with the family reuniting in London, where a familiar but shabbier face from their Berlin past reflects how profoundly the Nazi regime has upended so many lives.

The smaller moments and daily struggles that shape the family's exile.

Papa tells Anna to write about disasters in her poems rather than cheerful things, defying her teacher's advice.

Anna feels unexpectedly excited about fleeing to Switzerland and feels guilty for enjoying the idea of a new adventure.

The family learns that Nazi police arrived at their Berlin home to seize their passports the morning after the election.

Papa reframes being a refugee as an exciting adventure during a steamer trip marking Anna's tenth birthday.

Onkel Julius tells Papa that the Nazis have been burning books, including Papa's own published works.

Papa tells Anna and Max that because Nazis spread lies about Jews, they must be especially honest representatives of their people.

Max and Anna learn from Swiss neighbors that the Nazis have placed a thousand-Mark reward on Papa's head for his arrest.

Mama breaks down crying and tells Papa she feels crushed by domestic duties, saying all she ever learned was to play piano.

Papa repeatedly wakes the household by shouting during nightmares in which Nazis stop him at the German border.

Mama takes a despondent Anna out for expensive pastry and tea and encourages her to keep persevering with the French language.

The family visits the Zwirns in Switzerland for a summer holiday and both Anna and Max feel how much they have changed.

Omama visits the Paris apartment and criticizes how small and sparse it is, declaring it is no way for children to grow up.

Anna bursts into tears and tells her parents she can bear poverty and exile but cannot bear for the family to be separated.

Papa sits quietly stroking Onkel Julius's watch while the rest of the family excitedly makes plans for the move to England.

On the train to London, Anna reflects that although her childhood has had difficult parts, it has always been interesting and funny.

Alongside the outer events of the family's flight, a series of inner turning points shape who Anna and her family become. Papa's moral courage — from encouraging honest writing to defying Swiss neutrality — sets the tone for how the family will face every new hardship. Discoveries about Nazi persecution, from the reward on Papa's head to the burning of his books, steadily deepen the children's understanding of the danger surrounding them. In Paris, the family's emotional breaking points arrive in quiet moments: Mama's tearful confession, Papa's nightly nightmares, and Anna's desperate plea not to be separated from her parents. These crises are met with resilience, and Anna's hard-won mastery of French, her prize-winning essay, and her composure on arrival in England show how profoundly she has grown. The final image of Papa silently stroking Onkel Julius's watch captures the grief and gratitude that underlie the family's hard-earned survival.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that define the family's journey.