Reconstructing the events of her life as a diary, Sonia Grinberg tells her story with a charming and dramatic immediacy. The reader accompanies her through the war years in France, during which Sonia is separated from her family and hides in a convent school in the country.  Her adored older brother dies a hero of the Resistance.

Sonia and her parents return to their home in Belgium, where she completes her education, suffers romantic agonies and develops an adventurous streak that worries her conservative parents. They are happy to see her embark on a trip to Israel in 1951. Her vivid diary from this time is filled with historic detail and colourful anecdotes, such as dancing at an inn called The End of the World in Eilat. Back in Brussels Sonia enters the workforce and resumes her independent style until marriage and two children bring her to a new stage in her life.