Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it's an image of a book she hasn't seen in sixty-five years--a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

"Jacob and Moses Stein, two young Jewish brothers, are staying with their aunt in Paris amid the Nazi occupation. The boys' parents, well-known German playwrights, have left the brothers in their aunt's care until they can find safe harbor for their family. But before the Steins can reunite, a great and terrifying roundup occurs. The French gendarmes, under Nazi order, arrest the boys and take them to the Vélodrome d'Hiver-a massive, bleak structure...

Although their father is in a German P.O.W. camp, Paul and Marie are barely touched by World War II in Vichy, France, in 1942. But, when their friend Henri's parents disappear, the children decide to hide their Jewish friend from the Nazis and soon find themselves involved in the French Resistance.