Set in China, the United States,. Germany, and USSR, this is the powerful story of Vickie, a woman of indomitable will, who is yearning above all for a life of freedom and security and who must endure an autocratic mother, an alcoholic sister, a faithless, weak husband, and a fatally flawed lover.Driven by an overwhelming wish to survive, Vickie lives through the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the death of her best friend the Jewess Sara in a refugee camp in the Philippines, and a wrenching choice between following her deluded French communist lover to the Soviet Union and marrying an American officer. She makes her choice and moves to San Francisco where she must adjust to a new way of life. In Heidelberg, where her husband Brian has been transferred, she runs into the Frenchman again, has an affair with him and bears his child, but through it all steadfastly refuses to follow him to the Soviet Union she hates. When tragedy strikes and Vickie is tormented by the discovery of a hidden family shame, this remarkable Russian woman is still able to find happiness and security in the United States.