A small Dutch boy, Peter Knobel, safe in the beautiful countryside of Etten Leur is snatched from the warmth of his family’s love and the cosy smells of his father’s bakery to face death falling from the skies, hours hiding in holes in the ground, beloved uncle poisoned by the Gestapo, hidden radios whose discovery will mean death to him and his entire family. He is forced to watch as friends are stood against trees and shot and to wonder when his turn will come.

Then comes liberation by wonderful gods called Canadians who shower gentleness and chocolate upon his starving people.

The Knobel family gives up everything and moves to Canada where a wonderful future must wait for their children. And Peter is to realize this dream, first as a priest and then as a Canadian soldier. His career sweeps him from immigrant to high rank in the military. His work takes him from country to country, on the surface, a dashing young officer in reality an intelligence agent who will face life-threatening dangers in foreign lands where the old enemy becomes the new ally.

And not even those who are closest to him and who love him most share his secret.

This is the story of one of the true heroes of our times, the hidden ones. It is also the story of his Dutch and Canadian families, the struggle to become Canadian and the realities of the life of a soldier’s family.