In July 1944, at the height of the German occupation, Arielle von Auspeck arrives at the glamorous Ritz hotel in Paris excited to be reunited with her husband, Gregor, a retired colonel in the army who is soon to join her from Germany.
Her world falls apart when she receives word that Gregor was part of Operation Valkyrie, a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in Poland, and has been shot as a traitor. Arielle, who has both French and German parentage, is taken from Paris under cover of darkness for her own safety.
Assuming a new identity and unable to contact her children in Germany, Arielle goes into hiding in a small village in Normandy. Taking a job locally, she befriends a man whose Jewish wife and daughter have been deported. As the war rages on and the Allies storm the nearby beaches, Arielle discovers a hidden world of people like her, who are fiercely opposed to the occupying forces and do all they can to stop them. They are all fighting for a time when they can look for their families and return home.
Danielle Steel captures the devastation of World War II with a sweeping story of courage and survival against impossible odds.
