Alone in a sampan with his pig and three ducklings, a little Chinese boy is whirled down a raging river, back to the town from which he and his parents had escaped the invading Japanese, and spends long and frightening days regaining his family and new home. The novel was based on the author's own experiences as a military flier in China during the Second World War. The book won the Josette Frank Award in 1956.