An unexpected friendship blossoms between two children born on the border between war and peace.

Chiara's family sets out for a faraway land. Where they're going, Chiara's not sure there are such things as toys. Where they're going, there is an inside and an outside.
The inside is a luxurious garden where princes and princesses once strolled. The outside is a dirty city, soldiers with huge boots and big beards, and bombs. Outside is war.
One day, a boy from outside climbs over the garden wall. Taken for threat at first, he soon becomes the friends with whom Chiara will escape her gilded cage…
This book is inspired by the author's childhood. Her father was appointed Italy's ambassador to Tehran in 1979, just as Iran was about to sink into civil war.