Seredy's account of a young Hungarian immigrant coming to America to begin a new life reflects her own life. Her close identification with Michael lends a sentimentality to the story's character and plot development. At times, the book reads more like a fairy tale than a realistic account of the immigrant experience. For example, the account of Michael's seventh birthday becomes a "prince and pauper" tale when he pretends for one day to be just an ordinary boy and rides with the gypsy boy Andris.

But the Hungary that Michael lives in before the Nazi occupation is a magical world that cannot survive the brutality of war. By establishing Michael's world as idyllic in the early part of the novel, Seredy sets up the contrast of the subsequent chapters, thus intensifying the evil of the Nazis and the brutality of the war that destroys Michael's family...