Ben begins telling his story to Catherine, beginning in 1933 in his hometown of Zamosc, Poland. Ben is 12 years old and lives in a three-story home with his parents, Abraham and Leah, and his younger sister Rebecca, or Beka. A highly respected pillar of the community, Abraham runs a successful glass factory. That year, a financially ruined gentile named Stanislaw Piatek arrives at the Solomons’ door, leaving his son Otto in their care. Abraham and Leah treat Otto like a son, and Ben and Otto become fast friends.

Two years later in 1935, Stanislaw and his wife Ilse return. They both have well-paid positions with the Nazi Party, especially Ilse, who serves as secretary to Reinhard Heydrich, the chief architect of the Holocaust. Aware of the growing tide of anti-Semitism and Hitler’s broader plans for Central European Jews, Ilse is eager to take Otto away from the Solomons lest her son be mistaken as Jewish. Otto refuses, favoring his new family over the one that abandoned him.

A year later in 1936, anti-Semitic gangs roam the streets of Zamosc for an event called a Day Without Jews. After young punks chase Beka from school, Otto fights them off, suffering a deep cut from a razor blade.