Josef's chapters (1,4,7,10,13,16,19,22,25,28,31,34,37)
One of the character's name is Josef and he lives in Germany in 1938 he is also Jewish so the Germans don't like him and one night he is sleeping. It’s the middle of the night and he sees someone in his house but he thinks it is a dream but then he hears his sister scream so he tries to hide behind his bed but the person grabs him and drags him to the living room where his mom dad and sister are. The Nazis drag his father to his feet and pull him to the door Josef jumps up to try and get to his father and asks why they are doing this and they say it’s because he is studying law and that is illegal as a Jew and that they are going to take him to a concentration camp.
Then Josef's family gets notified that Josef's dad got released but before Getting on the ship they have to get on a train and the train is split, Germans were on one side and Jewish people were on the other side so Josef wanted to see what it was like in the German side of the train so he took off his Star Of David and put it in his bag and he buys a newspaper and then tries to pay for a piece of candy but when he tries to grab a coin he accidentally pulled out the Star Of David and gets taken to his best friend who is a part of Hitler youth.
Josef and his family are getting on the m.s St.louis a ship on the way to Cuba the reason they are going to Cuba is to escape the Nazis who told them to get out of Germany because they don't like Jews the Germans want to escort them out so they put them on this ship. One day Josef hears the attendants talking about if the ship doesn't beat the other ships they could get sent back to Europe. Some problems happen including Josef's dad jumping off and trying to kill himself because of his mental problem and is not allowed to get back on. Eventually, they are supposed to get to Cuba but are denied access and try to get to America but are denied and are sent to England, Belgium, and France a few months later Germany invades France and Josef's mother is left with a tough decision to send only one kid to a concentration camp.
Isabel's chapters (2,5,8,11,14,17,20,23,26,29,32,35,38,40,41)
In these chapters the book has this girl named Isabel who lives in Cuba with her mom and dad they have some family friends and one of the friends has a raft so Isabel asks them if they can ride in the boat they need gas so he says if she can bring her gas then she will be able to ride in the boat so Isabel goes to some fishermen and trades her trumpet for gas then she gives Ivan the gas so her family are allowed to get in the boat. They had been planning to escape but then over the television Fidel Castro announced that Cubans were now free to leave without being shot the u.s established a rule if the Cubans were caught with ¨dry feet¨ they would bring them to the u.s but with ¨wet feet¨ they would send them back to Cuba so they try to escape.
they get on the beach and hop on to the boat in the ocean at one point the motor dies and the boat flips and they all go into the water and the Advil floats away so now if they get a fever there is no way to try and help. Eventually, they reach land but it is the Bahamas and it is illegal for Cubans to land in the Bahamas. After being turned away by the Bahamas Lito talks about how he had to turn around a lot of German refugees including the m.s St.Louis Then the boat flips again because of a shark and the shark bit off Ivanś leg and started bleeding out and they don't have bandages but Isabel gets a pant leg and wraps it around the shark bite but he still bleeds to death.
They eventually can see Florida but a United States Coast Guard ship comes their way so Lito tells them a story of how he had to turn away many Jewish ships and how he had to save someone who jumped off who was Josef's father. Then Lito jumps into the water to distract the Coast Guard ship and Isabell's mother gives birth to a baby boy. They jump off the raft and reach Florida and Isabell starts school and is given a new trumpet.
Mahmoud ( 3,6,9,12,15,18,21,24,27,30,33,36,39,42)
Mahmoud lives with his family in Syria in 2015 that is when Syria was having a civil war and a bomb gets dropped on his house so they drove to Turkey to stay for a little bit until their boat came but on their way to Turkey they got stopped by soldiers and asked them whose side they were on Mahmoud said against the people who are dropping the bombs and the soldiers said well we are too and then some of the enemy soldiers start shooting at the rebels and hit the car so Mahmoud and his family hide in a ditch but soon they got to turkey to stay and wait for the boat but they waited for 3 days and their boat did not come due to ¨weather conditions¨ on the second day it didn't come for some reason and then on the third day it did come but it was a raft to fit like 15 people but there were 20 people so they are crowded on the boat.
Then it hit a rock and deflated so they were drowning he hung onto a dinghy but someone tried to pick his fingers off of the dinghy and he fell into the water and started fighting for his life, his mother and his baby sister were also currently fighting for their lives so Mahmoud asks if anyone can take his sister at first no one wants to take her but then one person says they will take his sister on the boat. Then the boat picks them up and takes them to a little island off the coast of Greece. Then Mahmoud and his father are sent to a detention center but get released and sent to another camp where they are reunited with his mom and brother.
Mahmoud and his family go through Macedonia, then to Serbia, to Hungary, to Austria, and then they reach Germany and meet an elderly couple, the old lady turns out to be Josef's sister and tells Mahmoud the rest of the story of Josef that includes Josef's mom having to decide between which kid to send to a concentration camp and that Josef and his mom died, and tells Mahmoud that they will find his sister.