In 1943, an undercover operative working for the British is captured by Germans in nazi-occupied France. Subjected to repeated and horrible torture, she eventually agrees to tell her story — despite knowing that death awaits her regardless. Even in the light of her capture and torment, her biggest regret remains the loss of her best friend Maddie — the girl piloting the plane that carried her here before crashing, and who comes alive in the pages of her story as she writes. Slowly, the account of how she came to be here unfolds — as well as another, deeper story; one of friendship and family, loyalty and love. As her…

Cilka Klein spent years as a prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, forced to do terrible things in order to survive. When Russian soldiers arrive to liberate the camp, instead of being set free, Cilka is sentenced as a nazi collaborator, and soon finds herself the inmate of another prison camp— this one a Russian gulag. Experienced in prison life, Cilka quickly figures out the rules of survival in this new nightmare, and attempts to help others adapt to the hard life. She faces both hardships and opportunities, both within the camp and within herself; after this dreadful ordeal, will she ever be able to allow herself to hope and…