When Hitler's armies invade France, the Emergency Rescue Committee hatches a plan to smuggle Jewish artists and intellectuals to safety using fake IDs. Assisting the effort is a high-spirited American heiress, Nanée, who foregoes a chance at escape to remain in France delivering messages and rescuing prisoners from internment camps. The stakes become intensely personal when Nanée falls in love with a photographer, Edouard Moss, who's attempting to reunite with his lost daughter. Deftly interweaving history and fiction, The Postmistress of Paris treats its characters with intelligence and sympathy, building to a satisfying climax. (BH)