One of Andre Norton's first books, the first in a trilogy about a young man involved in the Dutch resistance. This book begins during the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, shifts to the Dutch East Indies just before and during the Japanese conquest (an interesting unusual moment --I had not thought of the DEI being free for over a year after the fall of the Netherlands and making a serious, though unsuccessful, attempt to prepare to resist)--the briefly the coat of Australia, then across the U.S. and back to the Netherlands. As this suggests, it is a bit choppy. The boy is the heir to the House of Norreys who are jewelers, and he is entrusted by his dying grandfather with the responsibility for a precious necklace called The Flowers of Orange, which he has to return to the Netherlands to retrieve.. The story is competent but I think Norton's SF/fantasy is usually better. ( )