Jan E. Pikowsky's first book presents a gripping tale of two little girls struggling to survive the rough streets of England in the mid-1800s after their mother dies while their papa is assumed lost at sea. The cliff-hanging turn of events tugs at the reader's heart. This convoluted story is fast moving and filled with surprises that thrill and disappoint as their grandmother, desperate to find her daughter, without knowing she has passed leaving these tender young girls orphaned. The father of the children has survived a shipwreck while searching various islands for exotic wood to create his beautiful intarsia seascape wall panels. Stranded five years with only a pig for a companion; he knows nothing of his families plight. He believes his luck has turned when perchance, a ship anchors just off shore. His heart falls as he sees the quarantine flag they are flying indicating diseased inhabitants aboard. You will feel the anguish of this and his young daughter's situation, in spite of glowing moments of tenderness and good fortune which will delight and thrill the reader's feelings of hopelessness of their circumstances.