The Maelstrom traces the Peereboom family, Flora, Jozeph, and their three sons, from the early thirties to the early forties when Holland is occupied by Nazi forces. Living just outside Amsterdam, the Peerebooms lead a comfortable life, almost an idyll, as businesses prosper and the children grow and marry-and all the while, just outside the frame, National Socialism is advancing. The Maelstrom charts the private complacency of a family seeking normalcy in the worst of times.