This novel continues the stories of five interrelated families. Carla von Ulrich finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide; American brothers Woody and Chuck Dewar take separate paths to momentous events; English student Lloyd Williams discovers in the Spanish Civil War that he must fight Communism just as hard as Fascism; Daisy Peshkov cares only for popularity until the war transforms her life, while her cousin Volodya carves out a position in Soviet intelligence.