World War II has greatly affected Phillip and his family.  When the book begins, Phillip and his family are already living on the island of Curacao; however, this is not where Phillip was born.  The first part of Phillip's life was in the United States.  His father was an important employee for a gasoline refinery in Virginia.  He then took a job for a Dutch company on the island to help out their production process for the war effort.  Life on Curacao is not exactly a super safe place to be during this time.  When the book begins, Phillip tells readers that German U-boats have been spotted off the coast, and there have been reports of them attacking a nearby island.  Phillip and his family take some preventative protection measures like sleeping in different rooms and setting up blackout curtains.  School is also cancelled.  The dangers posed by the war continue to escalate, and Phillip's family decides that it is time to leave the island and head back to the United States.  They believe it will be safer there.  Unfortunately, the ship that they are on gets torpedoed, and Phillip gets stranded on a deserted island with Timothy.  Phillip is injured and loses his sight, and he has no idea if his family survived the attack or not.