This second book in The Zion Chronicles is a sweeping historical novel of a young nation struggling to keep its mandate and a young woman struggling for her life.

Rachel Lebowitz has survived the Holocaust, but only at a great personal cost. Joining the thousands of Jewish people streaming into Israel after the Nazi desolation, she is smuggled into the besieged Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, where she discovers members of her long-lost family. Rachel decides she cannot leave the Old City or the people who stand as one thin line holding onto its survival.

When secrets of her past are uncovered, she is discredited before those she wants so desperately to help. Alienated from her own people and left in despair, she is not aware of the enemy forces that threaten her very life.