The American narrator tells us about his Russian grandparents, who lived in Leningrad during World War II but have never talked about their experiences, though the whole family knows that the narrator’s “grandfather, the knife fighter, killed two Germans before he was eighteen” (1). Despite this reticence, the narrator finally persuades his grandfather to talk about his life in Russia. Instead, his grandfather “mostly he talked about one week in 1942, the first week of the year, the week he met my grandmother, made his best friend, and killed two Germans” (7). The rest of the novel is the grandfather’s story, told in his own words.

Chapter 1, now narrated by 17-year-old Lev Beniov, a citizen of Leningrad, has a compelling and dramatic opening. It is January 1942, and Lev bluntly describes the extreme deprivation, starvation, and intense fear that has pervaded Leningrad since the Germans arrived the previous June.

Lev reveals that many of Leningrad’s citizens have already evacuated the city, including his own mother and sister. Lev chose to stay behind, for he wants to defend his beloved city, which is nicknamed Piter. At 17, he is too young to join the army, but he contributes to the war effort by digging antitank ditches during the day and guarding the roofs of the Kirov, his apartment block, at night.