Jake and his sister Leah were torn apart from their good life in their youth. Jake lived well enough with the town rabbi in Pinsk but Leah suffered at the hands of the butcher and especially at the hands of the butcher's humiliating wife, Dora. Leah was treated as the lowest servant and so they made a daring escape on horseback. As the Nazi steamroller advanced through Eastern Europe, Jake The Horse Thiefwould be faced with the dangers of World War II. Jake became a leader of the partisan group dedicated to saving the lives of elderly Jews who were left behind in Vilna and Kovna Caberna. Jake was aiding escapees to leave Europe by water but the Nazis had a shore battery to shoot down allied planes and naval vessels along that Baltic coast, making it a dangerous business, indeed. In the meantime, Jake could not forget the dread that he had of a family in Pinsk that were dedicated to his eradication.