15 yo Romanian Jewish Daniela wants to become a doctor. Although 18 yo Jewish Mihail is hired to tutor her the two rapidly fall in love. When the Germans invade her town in Yedinitz, Romania her family is unable to escape. After the family is forced to leave the town, Daniela struggles to survive the Transnistrian Death march without her family. While Daniela is forced to be a concubine to a Romanian Iron guard commander, she is able to become a nurse at the field hospital. One night when the partisans come to kill two Nazi leaders Daniela is able to be reunited with Mihail, escape, and live with the partisans until the end of the war.
Linda Boroff did a great job at showing different perspectives of how it would be to live under German rule and justification of how people would act to survive. The story line flows fast, is believable, and has a reader's attention throughout the book. The book takes place during WWII and whenever there are scenes with soldiers there is usually a lot of swear words. Daniela also gets raped multiple times thoughout the story and it feels like the main point of the story is her experiences with rape. Boroff could have spent more time discussing Daniela’s experiences with the field hospital or partisans to give the book more value in a classroom setting. The title is misleading in that Daniela's role as the dressmaker's daughter is never really the focus of the story.
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