In the book, the author chronicles her discoveries after reading a box of letters she had never before seen.

Her Jewish parents had fled Czechoslovakia in April 1939[2] to seek haven in Canada.

Once in place, they corresponded with family and friends, encouraging them to escape the mounting peril that Hitler had envisioned as the Final Solution.

Wilkes would learn that shortly after her parents migration, the ability to flee had been curtailed; and that each letter, compounded the historical anguish the writers were forced to endure.

The book also received the 2011 "Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction".