Binding: Paperback
Date Published: 04 Mar 2025
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.
Unable to contact her children in Germany, Arielle assumes a new identity and 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.