In the days before the treacherous overnight raising of the Berlin Wall, teenaged cousins Drew, an American army brat in West Berlin, and Matthias, a young communist in East Berlin, become wary friends on opposite sides of the Cold War. Interspersed throughout the story are captioned photographs from the era.

In England, thirteen-year-old Ben and his twelve-year-old sister Rachel find two children who have been cryogenically frozen in a bomb shelter since 1956, and must prevent them from being discovered while helping them adjust to modern life.