When John Franklin brings his plane down into Occupied France at the height of the Second World War, there are two things in his mind: the safety of his crew, and his own badly injured arm. It is a stroke of unbelievable luck when the family of a French farmer offers them protection. The family's courage derives from different sources.
In Francoise, it was faith, a piety so humble and complete that the Reich could not touch her spirit. In her father, it was a glorious stubbornness; in her grandmother, a certitude born of surviving two wars. And in Pierre, it was hatred--a hatred so deep that only rarely did it flash on the surface.
All through the delirious pain of his wounded arm, Franklin felt Francoise's presence like a cool, comforting hand. In the end, it was her courage and, above all, her faith that saved him--saved him not only from the enemy, but from himself.
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