Born in the village of Tchongraw in 1930 in the southern Crimea, Lise spends her childhood under the spell of the mysterious, ancient Krymskiye Gory mountains of the Black Sea. Her Dutch-German people have been trapped in Russia for generations and Lise is challenged by her beloved grandfather to bring the story with her to freedom. Love of family, faith and determination bonds two uncles and 120 women and children of Lise's people into a spiritual force that empowers them to escape Russia with the help of German soldiers. Chased by the Red Army forces that explode out of Warsaw, Lise's mother saves her children in an extraordinary race for freedom. Her mother emerges a heroic figure who could have stepped from the pages of a Tolstoy classic. This is also the story of childhood sweethearts who reunite in freedom in 1949. - from Amazon