Jan Terlouw's award-winning novel tells the story of a German-occupied village in Holland living through the Bleakest winter of World War II. Food is scarce: starving refugees wander the countryside: able-bodied young men are sent to labor camps in Germany. Fifteen-year-old Michiel Van Beusekom finds himself burdened with the dangerous task of hiding a wounded English paratrooper under the very eyes of the Germans. Informers seem to be lurking behind every tree, and there are times when Michiel wonders whether his efforts to help only expose those he loves to more danger. This is not a war story of battlefield heroics, but a vivid account of ordinary peace-loving people whose lives are blighted by the conflict. It is a deeply moving and powerful antiwar novel.