Once upon a time there lived a Finnish girl, Mirya, in Virkino, near Gatchina. Once upon a time there lived her mother and father, brother Roine, aunt Aino, her grandmothers, grandfathers, their neighbors and acquaintances... And then there lived Comrade Stalin, and there lived those who signed sentences without the right of correspondence. Once upon a time there lived a huge country, Russia, and a small country, Ingria, and there lived Russians and Finns. Does little Mirya, looking into the faces of her parents, feel that she is seeing them for the last time and that she will have to grow up in a world living with fear, torture, war and death? The fascist invasion, deportation to Finland, disappointed hopes of finding a second and then first homeland, a “wolf ticket” and immediate exile, moving to Estonia, wounded by the post-war occupation, growing up in Viljandi and first love... The autobiographical story of Irja Khiiv, almost documentary in its accuracy and the completeness of the description of the eerie and attractive everyday life is an invaluable testimony and at the same time a deep and painful study of the human spirit, led by the healing power of Culture and not retreating from the cruel and destructive force of History. For a wide range of readers.