Based on a true story, My Mother's Secret is a profound, captivating, and ultimately uplifting tale intertwining the lives of two Jewish families in hiding from the Nazis, a fleeing German soldier, and the clever and “righteous” mother and daughter who teamed up to save them.

Four different perspectives are presented in the book: the rescuers, Helena and her mother Franciszka; Bronek, the leader of his family and his sister-in-law, hidden in the pigsty; Mikolai, who with his parents are hidden in a makeshift cellar; and Vilheim, a German soldier defector, hidden in the attic.

The novel is told from the points of view of Helena, who must hide their secret from the man she loves, who is close to the German commander; Bronek, a ranch worker desperate to get his family out of the ghetto; Mikolaj, the young son of a Jewish doctor; and Vilheim, a pacifist who abandons the German army to avoid ...