Five-year-old Sousanna is often cold and always hungry, but she's happy living in post-WWII Greece with her kind and loving family. Then one day a stranger approaches Sousanna's father with a startling proposition, made bearable only by the assurance that the situation is temporary.

But all is not as it seems, and Sousanna is taken from her home to a foreign place where she's adopted by an American couple. Everything is different and no one understands her. How will Sousanna endure alone in this strange place, where her culture, her language, and even her name are taken from her? Will her parents ever find her?

Heart-wrenching and heart-warming by turns, this timely novel inspired by true events explores the bonds between parents and child, the lasting effects of words spoken to young children, and what "for the good of the child" means.