The epigraph is composed of an excerpt from Muriel Rukeyser’s poem, “Fourth Elegy: The Refugees.” It references children playing innocent games as a white bird is perched atop a tree.

The Prologue is preceded by a George Santayana quote which surmises that those who do not remember the past will inevitably repeat its mistakes.

In the present-day (the year 2019), Julian FaceTimes his grandmother—Grandmère—for help on a humanities school project. They chat about his new school, and Julian mentions regretting some of his past actions, wishing he could have a do-over. Grandmère resonates with this feeling but tells him that “we are not defined by our mistakes…but by what we do after we’ve learned from them” (4).

Julian tells Grandmère that he wants to write his essay about her childhood during the second world war; he will record her and would like her to tell her story in detail. Although Grandmère finds this difficult, she agrees to do so, because she wants Julian’s generation to know what happened.

Part 1 opens with a line from Muriel Rukeyser’s poem “Fifth Elegy: A Turning Wind”: “The birds know mountains that we have not dreamed…” (9).