Remainder of title from jacket cover.

Includes bibliographical references (page 449).

A story told from alternating perspectives follows the experiences of a traumatized survivor of the Nazi occupation in France and a Jewish woman in wartime Paris who entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger.

Santa Cruz, 1953. The scar on Jean-Luc's face is a small price to pay for surviving the horrors of Nazi occupation in France. Now he has a new life in California, a family. He never expected the past to come knocking on his door. Paris, 1944. A young Jewish woman is herded onto a train bound for Auschwitz. In an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. Their destinies intertwined, the choices each person makes will change the future in ways neither could have imagined. -- adapted from jacket.