Summary

In Chapter 1, “Cecily, Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, February 1945, Japanese-occupied Malaya,” the Chin brothers were the first teenage boys to disappear when the disappearances began. Everyone in Cecily Alcantara’s neighborhood thought the boys may have done something to deserve their fate because they had mocked the Japanese soldiers since their 1941 arrival. As the months passed, more boys whom Cecily knew “began to disappear” (3).

When General Fujiwara and his Japanese soldiers “brought the British forces to their knees in under seven weeks,” Cecily believed it was “the dawn of a new age” (4). However, when schools began to shut and soldiers moved into the streets, her outlook changed. She started to worry about her children, Jujube, Abel, and Jasmin. Her fear often manifested as anger.

Abel disappeared on his fifteenth birthday. At first, the neighbors helped Cecily and her husband Gordon search for him. However, they...