When the Nazis take twelve-year-old Jan's family away, Jan finds shelter with friends. But a year in their attic becomes too much for him and he ventures into the dangerous streets of the city, where he finds refuge in the old Jewish cemetery and the tomb of Rabbi Loewe, who created a legendary giant-the Golem-to save his people from oppression in sixteenth century Prague. Jan travels back in time. Will he find a way to escape from the fate that was to befall a million and a half Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Europe?