Summary

Walter works in a store six days a week while Annelise cleans houses and does laundry so she can take Ruth to her jobs with her. She has always struggled with directions and getting lost, and she finds herself constantly lost in their Chicago neighborhood. Back in Germany, she was known for her terrible sense of direction and “Sofie and Emmi loved to remind her of the time she got lost walking to school—a route she took every single day, just four blocks from home. But she was so distractible, more attentive to random details” (147). She forms a friendship with the niece of one of the homeowners she cleans for. Charlotte is another refugee from Germany who works as a dressmaker with no other family. Annelise feels youthful when she and Charlotte spend time together because she reminds her of her childhood friends...