Jutta, Frau Elena and other girls from the children's home had to go work in factories to benefit the Nazi effort. They live impoverished and dirty. Russians are rumored to be coming, and it is said when they arrive they will rape the women. The rumors prove true. This is the end of the war experience for Jutta. Despite the efforts made by Etienne and Marie-Laure they never figure out what happened to Daniel. Marie-Laure is left no other choice but to accept that her father is not coming back. Her and Etienne move back to Paris.
Chapter 151 Berlin
- Only four girls are left at the children's home (Jutta, Hannah and Susanne Gerlitz, Claudia Förster)
- Jutta is now 15
- She now believes the bombers only come to burn the city to its roots
- Juttas life has become miserable, when she sees a backpack next to a dead body she first thinks of the poor soul then ponders whether there could be food in the bags
- Young boys scared to fight whom return home in the midst of war are being dragged into the streets of Berlin and shot
- Jutta receives to letters in the fall announcing the death of Werner, which have conflicting stories
- The girls hear now that the Russian ogres are coming to sack and murder them all
- Jutta hears one can smell the blood off a Russian miles away, amongst other rumours
- Jutta describes the terrifying day on which the Russians came for them
- Marie Laure and Etienne are living in Marie’s childhood home, waiting incessantly for a sign of her father’s state of being
- Each day as Marie Laure and Etienne wait at the train station for men returning from war, they discover nothing and Etienne sees men changed from the battles
- Marie finds she can only sleep two to three hours at a time, waking due to sounds of shells dropping, Etienne always finding and excuse for the noise she perceived
- Marie once again walks the halls of the museum with people who recognize her, with no mention of the Sea of Flames
- Marie receives warnings from Etienne, telling her to be prepared for the possible reality in which she never finds out what happens to her father
- One day Marie tells Etienne she would like to go to school