Elizabeth Fraser, quiet, observant, intelligent little girl from a small town in Saskatchewan becomes a "displaced person" when her father goes overseas with the Canadian Forestry Corps when World War II begins. Elizabeth and her mother spend the war in Montreal, where they live in one room in a boarding house, using a steamer trunk for a closet. Montreal offers Elizabeth city life, tramcars, bakeries, the close proximity of many people from backgrounds different from her own, and especially, French-Canadian language and culture.