Gerda Huber, an 18 year old girl from Ettersberg, Germany, is beginning to become accustomed to life during the Second World War. With the world war torn and her country falling apart from within, she finds comfort in Major Kurt Kaufmann, despite her better instincts and a returning old flame from the Western Front. **WARNING** CONTAINS HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF GERMANY DURING THE 1940s THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTURBING "I watched a drop of rain fall down the window as I stared down at the streets of Berlin. Husbands walked with their wives, dogs walked with their masters and the soldiers walked with their heads high. Their grey uniforms blending into the greying sky. The soft sound of piano from the wireless did not match the day. The music was light, happy. Berlin looked dull and grey, as it often did, well nowadays. I remember when I came here as a child on business with my father. Berlin filled me with such amazement and wonder, so different from the countryside where I longed to be now. The music stopped and I looked towards the wireless from where I was sitting on the window seat. Major Kaufmann, moved his hand away from the wireless and watched me closely, taking his cap off and putting it under his arm..."~ EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER 1