April 1939. Warsaw, Poland. To the casual observer, the houses on Podwale Street look very much alike. Yet at 16 Podwale, nothing is as it seems. Within, the walls hold many secrets that could destroy the lives of its inhabitants as they witness the city’s ever-mounting tide of Nazism. Wealthy recluse Elwira Malinowska is more an observer than participant in life. In her seclusion at 16 Podwale, she watches the world pass her by. Then Raz Zielinsky comes to work as a housemaid for her father, and Elwira’s life is suddenly divisible by two -- the time before Raz and the time after. Years pass, and the women become lovers. They depend on each other. Elwira is Raz’s protector, and Raz is Elwira’s conduit to the outside world, where people speak of nothing but the continual threat of war with Germany. Elwira, a steadfast Catholic, believes Pope Pius XII will intervene to save Poland from the rumblings of a maniac and an imminent invasion. But when the Pope fails to mediate peace and the political situation worsens, Elwira and Raz plan their escape to freedom.

The View from 16 Podwale Street

Could one good man, like Pius XII, make a difference in the fate of nations? Raz supposed it might be possible. A change had happened in Czechoslovakia, but that was not a good change made by a good man. Even Poland, her own country, had benefited from the arbitrary division of Slavic land. 


Raz had these confusing thoughts most of the afternoon. When she went into the kitchen later to make dinner, she left Elwira in the semi-darkened study, holding a magnifying glass up to her eyes, and with the desk lamp shining down on the pages of her book. She would leave Wira to Rebecca, a fictional world she assumed more like Elwira’s than the real one outside their door. 


Chapter 4