Josef Landau is a twelve-year-old boy living in Nazi Germany. On Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, seven Nazi Brownshirts (storm troopers) raid his home. Josef is dragged from his bed and thrown on the floor next to his six-year-old sister, Ruth. Josef’s father is arrested for being Jewish and practicing law. When Josef argues, the Nazis threaten to take him to a concentration camp. Josef’s mother, Rachel pleads with them, saying that he is still a boy. The family later learns that tens of thousands of Jewish men were arrested on Kristallnacht. They do not want to leave without their father. Six months later, they receive a telegram: Josef’s father has been released from the Dachau concentration camp, but the family must leave Germany within fourteen days.
