Set in Warsaw, Poland between 1939-1944, this young adult historical fiction novel follows 13-year-old Tadzio as he and fellow Boy Scouts and Girl Guides resist the Nazi occupation, testing to the limit their Scout pledge “To serve God and Poland with the whole of my life.”

When first challenged by his Scoutmaster to help in Warsaw’s fight against the Germans, Tadzio declines. His father has just mysteriously disappeared, and he feels responsible to care for his mother, older sister, younger brother, and newly orphaned cousin. His mother’s subsequent imprisonment, however, propels Tadzio to join his sixteen-year-old sister and Scout friends in small acts of sabotage around Warsaw.

Throughout the German occupation, Tadzio and the Scouts illegally deliver mail and ammunition to various places by traveling through the city’s sewer system. They print and distribute illegal news bulletins that keep Warsaw’s citizens informed about the activities of their government-in-exile. Tadzio and his friends also help with covert deliveries, secret radio transmissions, and, eventually, railway sabotage. As the occupation drags on, Tadzio and his sister, Magdalena, both find love interests, but the pressures of war force them to make hard choices.

On August 1, 1944, hoping for help from the Allied Forces, the people of Warsaw stage a sixty-three-day Rising against the German occupiers. Tadzio’s losses, however, threaten to extinguish his hope for a free Poland. The encouraging words of both a priest and a Jewish prisoner fail to rally his flagging faith in God. In the end, the Rising fails. All seems lost until Tadzio learns the truth about his father’s disappearance, and joins him in the formation of a new organization that plans to carry on where the Rising left off.