The date of the wedding was 12 June 1940. Just over a month earlier German armies had invaded the Netherlands, which had remained neutral since war broke out in Europe in 1939. Despite the German occupation, Ter and Nol proceeded with their planned marriage. If you’d known Nol, you’d have expected an exuberant party, but we know nothing about the event. The couple look happy together on photos, but the atmosphere at the wedding was probably rather lethargic, because there was sadness, fear and insecurity in the couple's family and among their friends. This chapter introduces you to the main characters in this story and explains their trepidation.

Tertia Kolthoff was a quiet, pensive and sensitive woman, but she could be outspoken when she’d made up her mind. Talking about her family, she often mentioned ‘outside loos’, meaning that her people originated in the countryside where homes didn't yet have indoor toilet facilities. Her father, Eliazer, had been born in 1872 in Hoogeveen, a small town in the eastern province of Drenthe. He was the son of a local trader. Her mother, Cis, was half a year younger. She was the daughter of a grain merchant and cattle dealer from Vierlingsbeek, a village in the southern province of North Brabant. Eliazer and Cis had been married there in 1900, settled in Amsterdam and had three children.

Tertia was born on 5 January 1913, a late arrival, more than 10 years younger than her brothers Mark and Frits. The official Tertia became the everyday Ter. After the retirement of her father as chief accountant of a large general department store in 1937, Ter's parents moved from their flat in the Rubens Street in Amsterdam- South to a house in the Lemon Street of the well-to-do Fruit District of The Hague. They may have moved to The Hague because a brother of Cis, Fred van Oss – a retired magazine editor and publisher – lived there. By the time of the move, Ter had already left home and was training to become a nurse.

In December 1939 Ter had met her husband-to-be, Arnold Bueno de Mesquita, five years older, born on 23 February 1908.