is the remarkable account of three generations of the Belenky family as told by Kathryn Nikkel. Each generation lives through the most calamitous events of the twentieth century and each is affected differently by them. Sophia Belenky came from the upper class in pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Russia: she escapes from the Bolsheviks across the frozen Don River and makes a new life in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The second generation experiences a personal family tragedy and the turbulence leading to the war with Nazi Germany and the disastrous effects on the Russian émigrés. They witness unbelievable cruelty, death, and the worst traits of people who were fighting for survival. Finally, near the end of World War II, they are forced to flee from the Reds but end up in a Nazi slave labor camp in Austria. Kathryn Nikkel (Katya) represents the third generation of the Belenky family. She is physically abused as a child and the emotional scars stay with her into adulthood. Her ordeal as a refugee was featured on .