Moving to the Philippines with his zoologist mother, twelve-year-old Pablo struggles with anxiety while his mother fosters an orphaned child with a facial anomaly.

Sent to Manila to discover why her company's microloan cooperatives are failing, Julia Wentworth discovers that a cleint's two daughters have been kidnapped. Determined to find the girls, Julia recruits an old friend and romantic attachment to help -- detective Monty -- and the pair uncovers a crime ring much more elaborate and dangerous than they could have ever anticipated.

It is early 1943. In the Philippines, a ragtag American guerrilla army battles the Japanese, under a most unusual commander. In Budapest, an agentmust keep two key prisoners from being interrogated by the Gestapo, his only choice to rescue them - or kill them. In Washington, an Army Air Corps captain suddenly finds himself assigned deep under the sea, his missionan improbable one involving submarines, supplies, arms, and gold. And in Cairo, an undistinquished...

"Inspired by the extraordinary true stories of World War II's American Army nurses famously known as the Angels of Bataan and the unsung contributions of Filipinas of the resistance, this novel transports us to a remarkable era of hope, bravery, perseverance, and ultimately--victory"--

Sixteen-year-old Bernardo, who is eight feet tall and suffers from a condition called Gigantism, leaves the Philippines to live with his mother's family in London, much to the delight of his thirteen-year-old half sister Andi, a passionate basketball player.