Thirteen-year-old Elena Petrescu and her younger brothers, Luca and Adrian, are among thousands fleeing the fighting near Romania’s border with Austria-Hungary.

Then a shell strikes their refugee column.

Their parents are killed, the survivors are scattered and the three children are left alone with nothing but the clothes they are wearing.

Their only hope is their grandfather in Bucharest.

With enemy armies advancing into Romania, Elena must lead her brothers across a country at war. They sleep in barns, search for food and learn quickly that survival sometimes requires doing things they never imagined.

After two weeks on the road, they finally reach Bucharest and begin to build a new life.

A different kind of normal.

But the war is still coming.