In Romania in 1989, when people who say or do the wrong thing disappear, ten-year-old aspiring writer Ileana copes with fear, hunger, and cruelty by writing new endings to stories, including her own.
In the early 1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.