In this autobiographical account of life in Seoul just before the March First uprising in 1919 and exile in Shanghai afterwards, Peter Hyun vividly describes what it was like to grow up in an occupied Korea subjected to Japanese colonial rule. The son of a member of the Korean Provisional Government in Exile, Hyun presents an intimate portrait of that small band of Korean revolutionaries who kept alive the hope of Korean independence. They have been all but forgotten or ignored, and their story, told by an eyewitness, represents a valubale historical record. At the heart of the story are the author's father, the patriot Reverend Soon Hyun, and his mother, Maria Hyun, an extraordinary woman of courage and integrity.