Ten-year-old Harry lives the ordinary life of a boy from a middle-class family. His father is a lawyer and his mother is a university professor. The well-ordered life he led comes to an abrupt end in the wake of the military coup, since his parents are now under threat of attack and must go into hiding. Without further ado, Harry and his younger brother are taken out of school. Still hoping that the coup will be put down, the family takes refuge in a house on the edge of town. In order to avoid being recognised, the family decides to use cover names. Harry chooses the name of his great hero, the legendary escapologist Houdini. As dangerous as their life underground is, the children are able to enjoy a closeness and the kind of trusting relationship with their parents they would otherwise never have known during their mother and father’s busy normal lives. However there’s no escaping the persecution of the new regime, and the days arrives when the parents must decide to leave their children with the grandparents or watch them get killed.
