It is 8th December1941. Fresh from England and six months pregnant, Ronny Rynd has left her husband in the suffocating heat of Manila to holiday in the mountain setting of Baguio. Following the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbour, she finds herself caught up in the Japanese attack on the Philippine Islands. Alone and vulnerable, this ordinary woman caught in the wrong place at the wrong time must learn how to survive.
Years of incarceration in prisoner of war camps loom as Ronny struggles to bring up her baby, living in constant fear in hostile and primitive conditions. Against this background unlikely friendships blossom to sustain her. Desperate to be a family, the ever-feisty Ronny must confront the dangerous Japanese authorities for permission to be united with her husband, imprisoned in the overcrowded city camp in Manila. But conditions there present different horrors and further heartbreak.
A tribute to the remarkable men and women who created their own functioning society within their camps, this book displays their inventiveness, determination and unexpected humour. It is a story of family life lived in spite of the brutal regime of years in prisoner of war camps.