aI wore my motheras mask but I saw through my fatheras eyes.a Jean opens the door to her Welsh home and her life in a mining community during the 1930s. Forced into womanhood during the tumultuous years of World War II, she says goodbye to her favorite brother with a talismanaa small-carved ivory elephant on a gold chain. Howard is captured by one of Rommelas divisions and begins the dark days of a German concentration camp. An American air force pilot rescues Jean from the rubble of her life. In Homer, Alaska, humor sprinkles their lives when a bear eats windowsill pies and a moose challenges Jean for her basket of laundry. In this memorable novel, unforgettable characters illuminate the timeless emotions of friendship, love, loss and belonging. In her struggles with the past and facing the future, Jean finds strength in unexpected places.