The memoir is an intimate family story. The author reflects on the upheaval and consequences of the Russian revolution through the partitioning of Germany by the Allied forces on a German family. Although the atrocities committed by the Hitler regime against the Jews are well known, much less is known about the plight of Germans living in Eastern Europe at the end of World War II. Marie-Luise, born to German parents in Poland, becomes a refugee and grows up in Communist East Germany. The family of four flees to West Germany and finally immigrates to the United States.