Summary

Chapter 1 – Seventeen year-old Christine Bolz lives in Germany’s Kocher River Valley. It is the autumn of 1938. She seeks out flowers in the woods for her grandparents’ anniversary and is joined by Isaac Bauerman, the son of the wealthy family that employs her as a domestic servant. Isaac is a university student, and his parents are generous employers. Christine dresses as well as she can for work, which her Mutti, or mother, Rose, dislikes since their family is working class and can’t afford nice clothing. Christine sometimes borrows clothing from her best friend, Kate, to wear on the job, all to look as pretty as possible for Isaac. Isaac’s parents hope he will marry a girl named Luisa, the daughter of family friends, but Isaac intends to marry whom he chooses. He and Christine kiss.

Christine knows her mother disapproves of her...