Elisabeth, known as Liesje, was born in Indonesia when it was a Dutch colony. She came of age at the beginning of World War II, and when the Japanese invaded she was interned. She escaped from the Japanese concentration camp, a decision that put her into survival mode for the next five years.

This is her account of her youth, of her life as a concentration camp escapee under the Japanese occupation, of her clandestine union with a noble Japanese military officer - a Samurai, of her subsequent journey to war-devastated Japan, and her life there after wards.