Germany, 1914. Three young sisters are torn from their mother and each other, sent to the country to do the work of farmers off fighting in the Great War. They struggle to endure the painful separation. Sofie, Amalia, and Dora Bauer reunite with their mother at the war's end and come of age during the Weimar years, a time of resistance, retaliation, food shortages, and wild inflation, when a cabbage costs a billion marks and a wheelbarrow of money can't buy a loaf of bread. Their passions and search for safety and meaning in a violent and chaotic world lead them to make religious, political,...

"I went to the kitchen, took off my coat. You'll find vat you need in the freezer, said the voice. Seven loaf cakes waited for me. I took them out to thaw. I covered a board with foil and prepared to mix an industrial sized batch of icing. Don't you be using shortening in that " "In the refrigerator, I found pounds and pounds of butter. As I unwrapped each one, it softened in my hands, soft enough to mix with sugar." "Shaping the cakes, gluing them together, listening to the voice in my head as I mixed colors I never knew existed and would never be able to recreate, I lost track of time. The...

"At the very beginning of the First World War, when many folk in Germany still had enough to eat, there lived three hungry sisters. Sofie, the oldest, had restless gray eyes, the color of the ocean on a stormy day. Amalia's eyes were the steady brown of newly plowed potato fields. Dora's shone blue as the Virgin Mary's robes. "

"At ages nine, eight, and seven these girls didn't have to be told the world was dangerous. They knew from their mother's worried face and how she said it would be only for a short while but they had to be good, no trouble to anyone, and spend their days locked...

"I went to the kitchen, took off my coat. You'll find vat you need in the freezer, said the voice. Seven loaf cakes waited for me. I took them out to thaw. I covered a board with foil and prepared to mix an industrial sized batch of icing. Don't you be using shortening in that " "In the refrigerator, I found pounds and pounds of butter. As I unwrapped each one, it softened in my hands, soft enough to mix with sugar." "Shaping the cakes, gluing them together, listening to the voice in my head as I mixed colors I never knew existed and would never be able to recreate, I lost track of time. The...

Seventeen-year-old Ivy MacKenzie is consumed by bitterness over the tragic death of her Vietnam veteran father. Desperate to break free of a family that doesn't understand her and a small town that suffocates her, Ivy runs away with Gil Thompson-a stranger who shows her a passion she's never known and a violent danger she never saw coming. Ivy's younger brother Bryan has a tender heart, conflicting memories, and a fierce loyalty to his family. Their disengaged, high-strung mother Carol parents as best she knows how while coping with her own lingering heartbreak and entering into a new...

Seventeen-year-old Ivy MacKenzie is consumed by bitterness over the tragic death of her Vietnam veteran father. Desperate to break free of a family that doesn't understand her and a small town that suffocates her, Ivy runs away with Gil Thompson-a stranger who shows her a passion she's never known and a violent danger she never saw coming. Ivy's younger brother Bryan has a tender heart, conflicting memories, and a fierce loyalty to his family. Their disengaged, high-strung mother Carol parents as best she knows how while coping with her own lingering heartbreak and entering into a new...