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Corrie ten Boom begins her narrative by recalling a party she and her sister Betsie organize in honor of the hundredth anniversary of their Father’s watch shop. She helps Betsie make breakfast and do last-minute cleaning, then Nollie arrives with several children. As the day progresses, friends come over to celebrate including Pickwick, a wealthy customer who is also one of Father’s confidantes. All afternoon she keeps an eye out for Willem but he doesn’t arrive until later that night when he brings a Jewish man with him who has just fled Germany after being attacked in the street. Recently Willem has been sheltering many people trying to escape from Nazis; however others think it will soon be put to an end because Germany is civilized country so hoodlums cannot continue to act like this forever.

Corrie reminisces about her childhood and adolescence. She grew up in the Beje with her siblings, Nollie, Betsie, Willem, Father and Mama as well as Tante Jans who writes Christian tracts and Tante Bep who was a governess. Mama had frequent bouts of illness so Anna took care of most housework. Corrie is nervous to go to school for the first time but decides she will just refuse. However over breakfast Father reads a psalm that describes God’s ability to create a hiding place for his followers. He walks Corrie to school himself.

Father not only sold clocks and watches, but also repaired them with precision. When he went on business trips to Amsterdam, Father made sure the clocks in that store were accurate by comparison with an old clock called Big Ben. Also while he was in Amsterdam, when Father discussed business issues with wholesalers who were of Jewish descent or worked for Jewish vendors, they would often talk about religious beliefs because many people had Bibles there. In fact it became a tradition whenever his friends showed him their Bibles once new deals got done as if closing agreements were formalized by making such exchanges more meaningful.

When Corrie graduates from high school, she takes over the household chores. She cares for her aunt who has diabetes and does a weekly blood test on her. One week, the results are bad, and she knows that Jans has only a few weeks to live. The family tells her gently about this news, but Jans reacts with great calmness and serenity. To Corrie, it is proof of God’s moral strength at times when people need it most.

Corrie meets Karel when she is a teenager. He’s Willem’s best friend and they fall in love with each other. However, Corrie knows that he will never marry her because his parents want him to marry a wealthy woman instead of her. Later, Corrie finds out that Karel has proposed to another girl and dumps her. She then asks God for help in healing the pain caused by this betrayal

Mama has a stroke, which leaves her unable to speak or write. She still manages to communicate with others by having Corrie do it for her. Meanwhile, Nollie becomes engaged and plans to get married soon. On the day of the wedding, Corrie realizes that she will probably never marry or leave home. She recalls hopes of marrying Karel in the past but is able to think about him without any hurt now because she’s forgiven him and prayed for him sincerely. A few weeks after Nollie gets married, Mama dies suddenly from another stroke.

Corrie is taking care of the house while her sister Betsie works as a bookkeeper at their father’s watch shop. However, after a few years, they switch roles because Corrie has more interest in business and Betsie is better at keeping the house clean. Since there are no other female certified watchmakers in Holland, Corrie becomes one of them after learning how to make watches and working hard for many years. She eventually runs the shop by herself when her father retires, taking care of many children who need foster parents along with running the store and caring for her siblings’ children.”