Book excerpt: In the summer of 1941, German troops laid siege to the city of Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg). The siege lasted nine hundred days and was one of the most tragic periods in the history of the city. While escaping across Lake Ladoga, Nicolae, a fifteen-year-old Russian boy, reluctantly agrees to take a Jewish orphan girl named Esther with him. The two set off together to find refuge in a city in Finland where they can only guess they will be safe. Along the way, Nicolae encounters secrets and betrayals that will ultimately change his life and discovers just how important protecting a nine-year-old girl can be.