In the spring of 1942, a small Czech town, previously untouched by the horrors of World War II, was visited by an unspeakable act of evil. The events of that spring would change the course of history for the entire Czech nation. The Time Before, the first book of the With Only Five Plums trilogy, presents what life was like in Lidice prior to the war through the words of one of the few survivors, Anna Nesporova.