Oz revisits here the Jerusalem of his childhood in the last days of the British mandate in Palestine. Our hero's name is Proffy (short for Professor), and he is twelve years old, his head filled with dreams of dying heroically in battle. Together with his friends Ben Hur and Chita, he spends the summer of 1947 as a member of a make-believe underground movement fighting the British. Indoctrinated by his patriotic father and his zealous Bible teacher, Proffy becomes "an excited panther in the basement, seething with oaths and vows, knowing exactly...to what he will dedicate his life, for what he will sacrifice it when the moment of truth comes". But when his comrades accuse him of treason for his friendship with Sergeant Dunlop - a fat, good-natured British soldier who revels in the Bible and shares with him the love of language - Proffy must vindicate himself in the eyes of his family and friends.