Content Warning: The following material includes references to warfare, imprisonment, torture, disease, starvation, and genocide.

The story opens in 1937 in Haarlem, a town in Holland not far from Amsterdam. Corrie both the main author and the central character of the narrative, describes her life in Haarlem. She is 45 years old and single, living with her father and her older sister Betsie in a modest three-story house called the Beje (pronounced bay-yay). The lowest story contains the workshop and storefront of the family business: a clock shop. The Beje had also been home to Corrie’s mother and several aunts before their passing, as well as to two other siblings, Willem and Nollie, who now live in their own homes. Corrie portrays her life as quaint, plain, and full of simple joys. She is unaware of the looming changes ahead: “Adventure and anguish, horror and heaven were just around the corner, and we did not know” (7).

The story begins with the 100-year anniversary of the family business. Corrie’s father—hereafter referred to as “Father”—is beloved in Haarlem, especially by the town’s children, who are entranced by his gentle manner and his coat of ticking watches.