These are profoundly moving tales of love, longing and redemption told by people of all walks of life: a Chilean expat returning to Chile after twenty-five years of absence, only to confront the secret he hoped would be forgotten; a widower who finds new meaning of life in conversations with a five-year-old; a US Vietnam dodger looking for eternal life in the myths of  First Nations; a writer whose art triumphs over the pains of unrequited love.

In 1941 Anna Borisovna Leonov’s life in Leningrad is shattered: her mother is accused of treason and her father hastily evacuates her from the city before the German enemy surrounds it.  With the help of a cheeky boy, a handsome truck driver and her own persistence, she returns to search for her mother in a besieged city that has no heat, no light, no food, little water and where citizens are dying of starvation. Luckily, she has a plan…