"Three women, haunted by the past and the secrets they hold. Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined..."--

Six months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, three eighth-grade girls living on an American military base with their families in Berlin try to save a Russian soldier, who has been beaten and left for dead, by smuggling him to Paris, where they are going to perform in a music competition.

"World War II has just ended, and Britain has established the Control Commission for Germany, which oversees their zone of occupation. The Control Commission hires British civilians to work in Germany, rebuild the shattered nation and prosecute war crimes. Somewhat aimless, bored with her job as a provincial schoolteacher, and unwilling to live with her overbearing mother any longer, twentysomething Edith Graham applies for a job with the Commission--but...

"Germany, 1931: Bookshop owner Max Beissinger meets Hanna Ginsberg, a budding concert violinist, and immediately feels a powerful chemistry. Soon they fall in love and plan for the future. But Hanna is Jewish and Max is not, and as their love affair unfolds over the next five years, their love is tested when Hitler rises to power. Unbeknownst to Hanna, however, Max has a secret--a secret that Max is convinced will help him save Hanna if Germany becomes...