Stefan Gundelach, a six-year-old Jewish boy, is forced to flee from Berlin, Germany after SS officers destroy the orphanage he resides in during Kristallnacht. With very few other options, Stefan is sent via the Kindertransport scheme to Britain where he enrols in the Gallows Institute For Boys, a boarding school situated in Gravesend, Kent. Having left his father-figure, Frank Falkenberg, and his best friend, Jens Wintermeyer, behind, Stefan struggles to adapt to British life and is left feeling isolated and alone as a result. Stefan is thrown into turmoil after meeting the school’s mysterious and malevolent headmaster, Ebenezer Finch, who doesn’t hold back his disapproval towards the young boy; simply because he is of German and Jewish heritage. Finch, along with two of his students, make Stefan’s life a misery, and when a classmate vanishes in extremely suspicious circumstances, the truth about what is really going on behind Institute walls begins to unravel. Despite the many hardships he faces during his stay in England, Stefan manages to develop close friendships with a fellow student, a Land Girl and even his English teacher, Harry Marlowe, who puts everything on the line to keep him safe; however, Harry’s reasoning behind his actions are far more complex than what first meets the eye. Just as Stefan finds his feet, war strikes, leaving devastation at every turn and those who survive it to bear their scars forever.
