When war devastated the land, 

buildings crumbled to dust.

Everything we had was lost,

and we fled empty-handed.

Having traveled a long way from their troubled homeland, a boy and his family are living in poverty in a strange new country.  The boy has no toys and no books, and, worst of all, food is scarce.  But then instead of bread his father brings home a map and hangs it on the wall.  Suddenly, without ever leaving the room, the boy is transported to exotic places.

In this story, based on his childhood memories of World War II, Ur Shulevitz tells how a map and his imagination took him far away from his hunger and misery.

From the dust jacket