Fourteen-year-old Angela Ziff finds an intriguing hat and letter in her grandmother's attic that opens the door to a family past that no one can imagine. Though her grandmother has passed away, the old house and the objects provide clues that Angela and her best friend Alan follow through a web of deceit and danger that ultimately reveals a shocking truth. Her grandmother had been helping hide a wanted Nazi war criminal. Angela finds a grandfather she never knew she had; encounters her real father, who threatens to repeat the family violence of the past; and tries to help her damaged mother navigate the new changes and accept them. Most of all, Angela finds that she must face some of the inexplicable unfairness of life just at the moment when she thinks she finally has some answers. Everything begins in her grandmother's attic.