The story was adapted from the real-life memoirs of Hannah Neumann. When the war broke out in Europe in 1939, Hannah's family snuck out of Austria to Shanghai, China. In this book, Hannah recalled her family's life in Shanghai.She said, her strongest memory of this time was the kindness of Chinese people. Firstly, the Chang family, then the Li family, they were willing to share what little they had. Hannah is not Chinese, but she love China and the generosity of Chinese people.