It is 1989. Nothing indicates any change in the communist regime. The changes that are to come are going to be swift and irreversible. Mark and Pete do not know that. Their minds have crossed the Rockies, and their desires are stronger than any totalitarian regime can bound. There is nothing can hold them back, now that they have made the plan and given up their position as members of the Olympic Team - abdicated on success, in order to gain their dreams, but also their very selves. To escape is the only way to survive, it seems...

This is Volume IV of ESCAPE, the tetralogy whose main hero, Mark, is an Olympic swimmer on the run from the communist Czechoslovakia. In Volume One, Mark and his friend Peter attempted to cross the border to Austria, in Volume Two, Mark learned his ropes in Italy, then traveled to France and Belgium. After a failed love affair and a strange adventure in Germany in Volume III, Mark finally finds the love of his life and regains not only reputation but much more than riches and wealth - in part in England, partly back on the Continent, he achieves his goals and dreams.